Change

The bankruptcy judge overseeing Enron Corp.’s case may decide today whether to move the venue to Houston. Judge Arthur Gonzalez deferred the decision last week on whether to move the case in a lawsuit filed by former merger partner and rival Dynegy Inc., which is involved in several lawsuits with Enron (see related story). Meanwhile, despite claims to the contrary, internal Enron documents seem to indicate that former CEO Jeffrey Skilling may have known more about the dubious off-balance sheet transactions, which precipitated the energy trader’s collapse last year.

While the series of terrorist attacks on the United States Tuesday will “change the entire agenda of Congress and the federal government” during the fall session, a key legislative analyst doubts that energy legislation will be placed on the back burner as a result.

Regardless of whether state regulators change the present proposed decision on rate coverage for the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) power buying, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. will move ahead with its proposed bankruptcy reorganization plan which should be filed “well before” its current Dec. 6 deadline. Sources close to the San Francisco-based utility indicated the expected filing could come at any time in the next few days or weeks.

The New England Power Pool (NEPOOL) is asking FERC to allow it to change the treatment of installed capability (ICAP) transactions in order to make it easier to trade ICAP and firm energy products across control area boundaries. NEPOOL said that its proposed market rule revisions represent a significant step in facilitating inter-control area trading of ICAP, while also focusing on New England’s largest export market, New York.

Summertime, and the living is downright hot–finally. Moderate to severe heat was uniform in all areas for a change Monday (even up into Canada, where a Calgary source reported afternoon temperatures in the mid 80s). The cash market responded with across-the-board gains that were mostly in the teens.

Almost overwhelming obstacles are blocking competition and change in Mexico’s natural gas and electricity sectors and are going to take time and private investment to overcome, according to one of the country’s energy commissioners.

With the introduction of the Gulfstream Natural Gas System pipeline in mid-2002, the whole “tenor of the gas market” in the Sunshine State will undergo structural and financial changes, said a Gulfstream executive last week.

With the introduction of the Gulfstream Natural Gas System pipeline in mid-2002, the whole “tenor of the gas market” in the Sunshine State will undergo structural and financial changes, says a pipeline official.

According to a stipulation and agreement between the Maryland Office of the People’s Counsel and Baltimore Gas & Electric, BGE must change its gas purchasing practices and buy between 10% and 20% of its winter gas supply under fixed-price agreements. The settlement was filed with the Maryland Public Service Commission this week. The switch to fixed-price contracts was a revision to BGE’s market gas commodity price procedure, which establishes the commodity portion of retail gas prices. BGE sets commodity prices based on monthly reported gas prices in spot markets. Under the agreement, BGE will buy 10-20% of its winter supplies between April and September under fixed-price deals. Gas purchased under the fixed price agreements will not be subject to sharing mechanisms or prudence reviews. “The volatility of natural gas spot prices hurt residential customers in Maryland this past winter,” said Peoples Counsel Michael J. Travieso. “This settlement will bring some diversity to BGE’s supply portfolio and help moderate the effects of unstable spot prices on consumer bills. Customers will benefit from more predictable gas costs.” The settlement also reduces what consumers must pay for BGE to reserve future gas supplies from $1.625 per year to $300,000.