California

Mojave Pipeline began taking its compressors at the Topock, AZ border delivery point into Southern California down, one at a time, for exhaust system maintenance Tuesday. The outages, which are scheduled to last through Thursday, reduce capacity into Mojave from El Paso and Transwestern by 165 MMcf/d from a base capacity of 500 MMcf/d.

Southern California Gas has scheduled April 10-14 and April 18-20 work on Line 225 that is expected to reduce total available border delivery capacity at Wheeler Ridge. During the April 10-14 period Wheeler Ridge capacity will be reduced by 200 MMcf/d, while storage capabilities will be cut by 75 MMcf/d (injection) and 250 MMcf/d (withdrawal). The April 18-20 maintenance will cause a loss of 740 MMcf/d at Wheeler Ridge, leaving an estimated shared capacity of 140 MMcf/d to be allocated among upstream pipelines Kern River/Mojave, Pacific Gas & Electric and Occidental, based on their respective scheduled quantities from two days prior to the start of the work. “Shippers will need to consider how they wish to serve their markets on the SoCalGas system,” the giant LDC said. The Kramer Junction delivery point will still be available, but shippers should understand that it may also become constrained if nominations from other upstream pipelines into the North Desert Transmission Zone (NDTZ), of which Kramer Junction is part, increase in response to SoCalGas’ maintenance, it added.

Southern California Gas postponed the second phase of work scheduled in the San Joaquin Valley on Line 225. That ended Wednesday afternoon a large reduction in capacity at the Wheeler Ridge delivery point into SoCalGas due to this maintenance, which had previously been scheduled to run through Friday (see Daily GPI, March 1). The second phase of the project has not yet been rescheduled, a SoCalGas spokeswoman said.

A third nonutility underground natural gas storage field in the state was approved Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission, whose lead regulator on the case said the quick action on the proposal will allow the state to have an extra 1 Bcf of gas in storage before the next winter heating season begins in November.

Key Democrats in the California congressional delegation have introduced legislation in the House and Senate to permanently ban oil and natural gas leasing off the state’s coastline.

As the result of a year-long investigation of a five-year period dating back to 2000, the consumer protection branch of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) earlier this month issued a recommendation that Pacific Gas and Electric Co. be required to refund $117 million to its customers and pay a $6.75 million fine for mishandling the delayed and/or estimated billing of tens of thousands of residential and business customers. The staff concluded that the PG&E utility “collected monies from customers in violation of two CPUC rules.”

Following a mandate from state regulators who authorized increased funding, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. announced Thursday that it was expanding its energy efficiency programs for businesses, permitting qualifying customers to obtain up to $300,000 annually in rebates for cutting energy waste in their facilities and operations. In addition, for the first time, the SoCalGas programs are open to the utility’s largest industrial customers.

As part of a full energy agenda last Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission authorized Pacific Gas and Electric Co. to make adjustments in past and current revenue requirements to avoid any cost-shifting between utility bundled customers and direct-access customers buying their own power supplies. Another decision tied to the PG&E utility’s 2003 general rate case adjusted revenue requirements for both electric and gas utility customers to modify utility pension fund contributions in those rates.

Southern California Gas kept last Thursday’s high-linepack OFO in place through Saturday before lifting it for Sunday.