Following in the footsteps of its affiliates, Gulf Crossing Pipeline Co. LLC Wednesday proposed adding an enhanced service to its tariff to serve the growing natural gas demand of power generators, industrial customers and local distribution companies (LDC).

Specifically it wants to add an Enhanced Firm Transportation (EFT) service to provide accelerated hourly firm service to its customers’ primary delivery points, the pipeline told FERC. This would allow customers of Gulf Crossing, a subsidiary of Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP, to receive delivery of gas on a firm basis at a 1/16 hourly rate of flow.

“Gulf Crossing’s traditional FTS [firm transportation service] is designed for a 1/24 hourly rate of low. As customers’ needs change and with the increase in natural gas consumption by the electric generation market, Gulf Crossing has seen an interest from parties for flexible hourly deliveries greater than that provided by the FTS rate schedule on a firm basis,” Gulf Crossing said.

It noted that the proposed EFT service is similar to the enhanced hourly services previously approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for two other pipelines, both subsidiaries of Boardwalk — Texas Gas Transmission LLC and Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP.

The Texas Gas EFT permits customers to receive deliveries of gas at their primary delivery points at a variable hourly flow rate up to one-sixteenth (1/16) of their contract demand, except during times when Texas Gas has given notice to customers that EFT service is unavailable. In addition, in mid March FERC approved an enhanced nominations services for Texas Gas with an additional 11 nomination cycles each gas day and interruptible bump times as short as one hour to serve the on-again, off-again power generation load (see Daily GPI, March 19).

Gulf Crossing’s proposed EFT rate schedule “is designed for a variety of customers desiring to consume gas at hour rates of 1/16 of customers’ maximum daily quantities, particularly end-use markets such as power generators, industrial customers or [LDCs].” The pipeline said the 1/16 service would only be available at a customer’s primary delivery point. But it noted that a customer can continue to use secondary delivery points on a 1/24 hourly rate of flow.

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