Competition

With regulatory changes and greater competition increasingpressure on gas utilities to stay competitive with their gaspurchases, the last thing they need is another warm winter toconfuse their gas purchasing and storage plans. NGC Corp. isoffering several new financial products utilities and largeendusers may find useful in reducing exposure to unpredictableweather and volatile market conditions.

California’s retail electric market kicks off in the earlymorning hours today (March 31) with the state-chartered wholesalespot market, the power exchange (PX), processing a market-clearingprice and generation schedules for another newly created statepublic benefits organization, the independent system operator(ISO), that will run the state transmission grid.