The Missouri Public Service Commission (MPSC) has asked FERC to require Kinder Morgan Interstate Gas Transmission (KMIGT) to provide a detailed report of its annual imbalance revenue reconciliation and to explain why it has continually carried large excess imbalance volumes on its system for the last three years.

For the three years ending Sept. 30, “the average excess monthly imbalance was 536,360 MMBtu. KMIGT should be required to explain why shippers have been consistently leaving excess gas on its system, and the extent to which this affects the operation of its system. Further KMIGT should address the question of whether it would be appropriate for KMIGT to dispose of significant cash-out purchase inventory via an auction,” the public service commission said.

The Missouri agency’s protest was addressed to Kinder Morgan’s filing (RP02-122) of its annual imbalance revenue reconciliation, which showed $236,254 in total imbalance revenues to be credited to no-notice and firm transportation shippers. The pipeline said it would distribute the revenues within 30 days of an order issued by FERC accepting the filing.

The Missouri commission noted that the pipeline’s report summarizes the computation of net imbalance revenues, including net imbalances, penalty revenues, and month-end imbalance inventory figures. But it should also be required to provide the following: (1) a separate reporting of purchases (cash-out costs and volumes) and sales (cash-in revenues and volumes) for each month; (2) for both off-system and on-system imbalances, monthly cash-out costs and cash-in revenues per shipper, detailing the applicable volumes and rates applied by KMIGT; and (3) penalties per shipper, detailing the applicable volumes and rates applied by KMIGT.

The MPSC said it would not object to confidential filings, accessible only to parties in the case. The public service agency noted that KMIGT is one of the few pipelines which accounts for net imbalance revenues using an inventory methodology.

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