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Tenaska Frontier Partners Ltd. and Power Team said constructionwill begin immediately on the largest non-utility electricgeneration plant in the U.S. The Tenaska Frontier GenerationStation is an 830 MW gas-fired, combined-cycle facility to beconstructed near Shiro, TX, 70 miles northwest of Houston. Theplant is expected to use about 145,000 MMBtu/d.

KN Energy will not be building its Front Runner Pipeline projectthis year as originally planned but may begin construction by nextsummer in time for service in November 1999, a company spokesmansaid yesterday. KN originally intended to have the project inservice for the upcoming heating season. Despite receiving anoptional certificate on the project from FERC in July, the companystill has not lined up the required customer commitments to moveforward.

The Public Utility Commission of Ohio made it possible yesterdayfor 1.8 million retail gas customers in more than 64 Ohio countiesto begin choosing gas suppliers this winter. PUCO approved a hugeexpansion of Columbia Gas of Ohio’s pilot program and extended thepilots of Cincinnati Gas & Electric and East Ohio Gas.

FERC yesterday gave its blessing to a hard-fought fundingsettlement that provides the road map for the Gas ResearchInstitute to begin its seven-year journey to become avoluntarily-funded organization.

FERC said it plans to begin audits of three additionalinterstate pipelines next month as part of its stepped-up effort tocrack down on abuses involving marketing affiliates. The on-siteaudits of Columbia Gas Transmission, Great Lakes Gas TransmissionL.P. and CNG Transmission are expected to get underway around May18, according to a spokeswoman.

Nautilus Pipeline said it is on track to begin receiving gasagain at Ship Shoal 207 at the start of the May 1 gas day.Processing of a large condensate slug at Exxon’s Garden City Plantonshore Louisiana (see Daily GPI, April 17) is expected to becompleted by Thursday.

Starting Friday, about 90,000 gas consumers in 165 Nebraskacommunities served by KN Energy will begin two weeks of shoppingfor alternative suppliers. Three suppliers have signed up for theone-year pilot, including KN’s unregulated energy services arm,Brighton, CO-based United Gas Service, and Public Alliance forCommunity Energy, an organization of 33 municipalities based inLincoln, NB. KN, the regulated utility, will serve as the defaultsupplier. Supply and transportation services will remain on asingle bill mailed by KN.

California regulators are expected to begin taking a much closerlook next week at proposals to curb market power in the state’s gasindustry, and their decisions could rapidly accelerate convergenceof the gas and electric industries. Included among the proposals isa plan to force the state’s major utilities to divest gastransmission and storage assets and form an independent gastransmission system operator, replicating part of what was done inthe state’s power industry. California natural gas industryrestructuring proceedings are scheduled to move into overdriveduring four day-long hearings starting April 6 in San Francisco.

The next challenge to the troubled Canadian natural gas pipelineestablishment opens May 25, when the National Energy Board hasscheduled the start for hearings on AEC Suffield Gas Pipeline.