California

Power plant developer/operator Calpine Corp. Tuesday was directed by a Delaware court to work out a plan in the next week for returning more than $300 million in proceeds from oil/gas asset sales whose earlier distribution had been challenged by two sets of corporate bondholders. The monies need to be distributed back into The Bank of New York, a collateral trustee and one of the plaintiffs filing the lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

PG&E’s California Gas Transmission system has declared a customer specific operational flow order for Tuesday’s gas day. System inventories are expected to rise above normal operating limits. The pipeline had a Stage 3 systemwide OFO with a 10% tolerance in place on Saturday.

Southern California Gas kept a high-linepack OFO in place Sunday that had been in effect for the previous two days, then lifted it Monday.

Southern California Gas issued a high-linepack OFO for Friday, saying it will assess Buy-Back charges to customers who deliver into its system more than 110% of their actual gas usage.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. late last Friday notified the California Public Utilities Commission that what it called “skyrocketing” wholesale natural gas costs nationally were causing wholesale electricity prices to spike and the result might be the need for added retail power utility rates in the state. PG&E’s utility estimated that the higher gas costs could translate into an added $243 million in wholesale power costs, or a 2.5% hike, by January.

Joining eight other state attorneys general, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sent a letter to Congress strongly opposing the so-called refinery bill (HR. 3893) in an eleventh-hour move last week that proved unsuccessful in the House of Representatives where by a narrow majority (212-210) the legislation was sent on to the Senate last Friday. Lockyer attacked the bill for what he alleged was its real intent of permanently weakening national clean air standards in the name of providing a temporary response to the nation’s refining shortage in the wake of the two Gulf of Mexico hurricanes.

Sending a message it wants both aggressiveness and cost-effectiveness in a billion-dollar utility meter-change-out proposal, the California Public Utilities Commission Thursday granted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. $49 million in pre-start-up funds — despite a staff recommendation to slash the amount to $7 million — for its proposed five-year effort to transform all of its natural gas and electricity utility customers to advanced (“smart”) metering systems.

Southern California Gas extended Saturday’s high-linepack OFO through Sunday before lifting it Monday.

Southern California Gas declared a high-linepack OFO for Saturday, saying it will assess Buy-Back charges in accordance with its rules and tariffs to customers who deliver into its system more than 110% of their actual gas usage. SoCalGas also reminded shippers that due to pipeline maintenance, there will be a loss of 220 MMcf/d of receipt capacity at the North Needles and Topock border points on Monday through Wednesday this week. If total scheduled volumes exceed 1,100 MMcf/d for the combined points during that time, SoCalGas said it will allocate individual receipt point capacities pro rata at North Needles and Topock based on Cycle 1 scheduled quantities. There will be no impact for deliveries received from Kern River at Kramer Junction, the utility said.