GasKey, a marketer to more than 20,000 residential and smallcommercial customers in Georgia, won the dubious award of being themost complained-about gas supplier in the state last month, theGeorgia Public Service Commission said in a new online report cardpublished earlier this week. GasKey, which recently sold its customersto Georgia Natural Gas Services (GNGS), compiled 45.14 complaints per10,000 customers last month. Second on the list is the now bankruptPeachtree Natural Gas, which received 26.43 complaints per 10,000customers. Shell Energy Services bought Peachtree’s 170,000 customerslast month. The two largest suppliers in the market, GNGS and Scanareceived relatively few complaints, ranking No. 11 and No. 13respectively out of a total of 17 utilities. For more information onthe ranking see the PSC’s web site.

Pepco Energy Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Washington,D.C.-based Potomac Electric Power, said yesterday it has enteredthe retail gas marketing and appliance services business in aneffort to become a single-source supplier. PES is offeringcompetitively priced gas and a comprehensive home appliancewarranty package under its new PowerChoice Home label. PowerChoiceHome protects homeowners against expensive repairs. Every majorhome system and appliance is covered for a monthly fee of $39.99,including parts and labor, and each service call is a flat $50 pervisit. Customers can arrange for service by pre-qualified localtechnicians 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Discounts areoffered to customers who sign up for additional services, such aselectrical surge protection or natural gas, which PES is offeringto Maryland and District of Columbia customers served by WashingtonGas Co. Electricity is part of PowerChoice Home’s bundle ofservices in Pennsylvania, and will be sold in a broader Marylandarea next year when customer choice begins.

Williams Distributed Power Services has developed andsuccessfully tested a unique integrated power generation andstorage unit called the Williams Energy Conversion Unit (WILLIAMSECU) using a Capstone microturbine and Powercell Corp.’sPowerblockr storage device. The system generates, stores,conditions and delivers between 100 kW and 3 MW of high qualityelectricity. It provides many of the benefits offered by fuelcells, but is less complicated and more economical, said MoryHoushmand, managing director of the Williams Companies subsidiary.”We are generating, storing and dispatching electricity in a waythat has never been done before,” Houshmand said. Most fuel cellsrequire a reformer to convert hydrocarbon fuels into hydrogen,which then is combined with oxygen to create electricity. But withthe WILLIAMS ECU, fuel is directly converted into electricity in anultra-low emissions microturbine and then delivered to astate-of-the-art energy management device for storage andconditioning and subsequent delivery to the end user. The firstWILLIAMS ECU has been operating near Denver for the past severalmonths. Additional units are scheduled for installation in the U.S.and international markets in the next few months.

Apache Corp. announced the completion of its $517 millionacquisition of certain Shell Canada Ltd. assets yesterday. Thepurchase was first revealed last October (see Daily GPI, Oct. 6).The transaction included the sale of 294,294 net acres ofundeveloped lease holdings, 100% interest in a gas processing plantwith a potential capacity of 160 MMcf/d and 52,700 miles of2-Dseismic and 884 square miles of 3-D seismic. The properties’proved reserves equal approximately 5.8 MMB of gas liquids and 88Bcf of gas.

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