The Wallow wildfire in eastern Arizona’s White Mountains on Wednesday was threatening energy facilities operated by UniSource Energy Corp.’s Tucson Electric Power (TEP) utility, but a utility spokesperson told NGI there was no immediate danger and outages so far had been avoided. Expanding at four to five miles daily, the fire has cut across 311,000 acres of dense pine forests running near TEP’s north-south transmission power lines and coal-fired generation complex at Springerville, AZ. Under threat are the two power lines that carry 1,100 MW of power from Springerville and San Juan Generating Stations into the greater Tucson area. If the fire came close enough to the power lines to shut them down, TEP can bring on additional local generation and coordinate with other utilities to avoid outages, a spokesperson said.
Arizona
Articles from Arizona
FERC ‘Buy/Sell’ Decision Under Fire
A decision last month by FERC, which allowed Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) and Sequent Energy Management to proceed with plans to buy and sell gas at a storage facility in Texas, also prohibited buy/sell transactions by intrastate and Hinshaw pipelines and should therefore be rescinded, according to some recent FERC filings.
FERC ‘Buy/Sell’ Decision Under Fire
A decision last month by FERC, which allowed Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) and Sequent Energy Management to proceed with plans to buy and sell gas at a storage facility in Texas, also prohibited buy/sell transactions by intrastate and Hinshaw pipelines and should therefore be rescinded, according to some recent FERC filings.
Arizona Regulators OK Gas Customer Credits
A medium-size natural gas utility and a small propane distributor received approval from the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) Tuesday to implement separate purchased gas adjustor (PGA) credits for their customers. UniSource Energy Corp.’s UNS Gas utility and Semstream Propane will be allowed to adjust rates depending on the swings in the wholesale costs of their respective fuels.
Transportation Notes
El Paso declared a Strained Operating Condition Monday specific to three Arizona utility interconnects (DAPS PHX, DAPS YUM and DSRP PHX) due to high linepack. The imbalance tolerance was set initially at 10%. “The milder weather in the Phoenix area in combination with actual takes below scheduled quantities has resulted in a high linepack condition with the system linepack currently at 7,880 MMcf,” El Paso said, adding that its Washington Ranch storage facility was operating at maximum injections. Interruptible Storage Service was suspended Monday until further notice.
McCain Advocates Lifting Ban on Offshore Oil, Gas Drilling
Arizona Republican John McCain Tuesday called for more energy conservation, but he said more nuclear power plants have to be built and the ban on offshore drilling in the United States should be lifted. The “next president must be willing to break with the energy policies not just of the current administration, but the administrations that preceded it, and lead a great national campaign to achieve energy security for America,” McCain said in Houston.
PNG Ventures to Acquire Arizona Vehicle-Grade LNG Plant
PNG Ventures Inc. has agreed to purchase a 100% ownership interest in Earth Biofuels subsidiary Earth LNG Inc., which includes an Arizona plant that is one of only five vehicle-quality liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facilities in the United States, the company said Tuesday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Cash Prices Still Rising at Nearly All Points
Flat performances at the Southern California border and the Kern Delivery point in Arizona/Nevada were the only exceptions to cash prices continuing to rise across the board Tuesday. Forecasts of Wednesday lows in the 20s and 30s (and occasionally in the teens) from the Northeast through the Midwest and Upper Plains into the Rockies kept heating load at a relatively strong level for late March, and the cash market had extra support from the previous day’s 26.4-cent increase by April futures.
Arizona Approves 3.6% Gas Utility Rate Decrease for UNS Gas
The Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) granted Tucson-based UniSource Energy Corp.’s UNS Gas a 3.6% rate decrease Wednesday for its customers in the northern half of the state. A 4-cent/therm credit will be available to customers beginning Oct. 1 and running through April 30 next year.
Most Points Fall; Potential TS Approaches South Texas
Only the two Arizona/Nevada points in NGI’s price index table avoided an overall downturn Tuesday as cold fronts were expected to keep summer heat subdued in key northern market areas. Monday’s decline of 2.6 cents by September futures added a further minor bearish note to Tuesday’s cash trading.
