Boston

In a speech to natural gas buyers, sellers and transporters at the LDC Forum in Boston Thursday, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Curt Hebert, Jr. challenged his audience to use all the “clubs in their bags” to ensure that free market forces — and not price caps — are the future of the gas marketplace.

Days after receiving preliminary authorization from FERC for a $134 million, 24-mile Boston extension project (see Daily GPI, April 16), Maritimes & Northeast is petitioning FERC for authorization to operate additional compression units at its existing compressor stations in Richmond and Baileyville, ME. The new compression will bring the pipeline’s capacity to 440,000 Dth/d from the current 400,000 Dth/d.

A Nor’easter dumped snow from D.C. to Boston yesterday, fuelingthe bullish momentum in the gas futures pit. It also forced Nymexto close up shop an hour early and plan for a one-hour delayedopening today.

The New England Council and the New England Governors’Conference will present “Winter Fuels Outlook: A National andRegional Perspective” in Boston today, offering insight fromindustry, academic and government officials about the comingmonths. Massachusetts Gov. A. Paul Cellucci, who also chairs theNew England Governors’ Conference, will speak, as well as James T.Brett, CEO, New England Council; Roger Cooper, American GasAssociation; John Felmy, American Petroleum Institute; and MarkRodekohr, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department ofEnergy. The conference has been called in response to a recentprediction by the DOE that with a “normal” heating season, naturalgas prices likely will increase by as much as 50% this winter.Similar predictions have been made about the cost of heating oil.To learn more about today’s conference, contact David Graves of RDWGroup Inc. at (401) 521-2700, extension 106.

NSTAR, the parent company of Boston Edison, CommonwealthElectric, Cambridge Electric and Commonwealth Gas, has requestedthat the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission impose a price cap of$1,000/MWh on the New England wholesale power market to protectelectricity consumers from potential surges in prices during peakperiods this summer (see Docket No. EL00-83).

NSTAR, the parent company of Boston Edison, CommonwealthElectric, Cambridge Electric and Commonwealth Gas, has requestedthat the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission impose a price cap of$1,000/MWh on the New England power market to protect electricityconsumers from potential surges in electricity prices.

Jim Buccigross, regulatory division manager of Boston-basedenergy consulting firm Skipping Stone Inc., is the energyindustry’s first Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB)-certifiedreviewer. Through GISB, Buccigross has the authority to review andcertify that a company’s software meets crucial criteria thatsupports GISB-set standards.

Avista Corp. is counting on technology businesses for growth andsees its Internet-based bill consolidation business as the frontdoor to a nationwide marketing presence. During press briefingslast week in Houston and Washington, DC, executives outlinedAvista’s continuing evolution.

“We are standing on the doorstep of some of America’s largestenergy-consuming markets: Boston, New York City, Chicago,Dallas-Fort Worth, San Francisco and Los Angeles. We believe therewill be about a half-dozen national energy providers. SouthernCompany intends to be one of those companies.”