Council

The Consumer Energy Council of America (CECA) on Wednesday said it supports increased research and development of technologies and approaches to develop nonconventional sources of natural gas, including methane hydrates, ultra-deepwater development, deep gas formations, coalbed methane, shale gas and syngas from coal or biomass. The group also became the first consumer organization to advocate the expansion of nuclear power.

Direct Energy has acquired the competitive electric customer base of Entergy Solutions Ltd. located in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) grid. The more than 100,000 residential and commercial customers are located throughout Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and South Texas. The $30 million acquisition increases Direct Energy’s Texas customer base to over one million customers.

The Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) last Wednesday released the results of comprehensive reliability assessments, projecting the region will have adequate supplies of electricity and will meet its system reliability criteria this summer under normal summer weather conditions.

A week after rolling blackouts hit parts of the state, Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) executives last week got an earful from senators who made it clear their patience has worn thin with controversies and bickering surrounding the organization.

FERC last Tuesday announced a rulemaking proceeding to address reliability standards developed by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC). The Commission expects to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) on the reliability standards in July.

FERC recently issued an order modifying the price cap on spot market sales in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) outside the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) grid to a $400/MWh “soft” cap. The order also raises the ancillary service capacity bid cap in CAISO to a $400/MWh soft cap [EL06-44].

The board of trustees of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) last week approved 13 new reliability standards and approved revisions to three existing standards. The standards cover seven critical reliability areas: vegetation management, facility ratings, transfer capabilities, reliability coordination, verification of generator capabilities, transmission and generation protection systems and undervoltage load shedding.

In spite of a temporary disruption to natural gas supplies because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Texas Energy Reliability Council (TERC) said Tuesday winter supplies will be adequate — but gas bills are expected to be a lot higher.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) called on Congress Friday to rush the “amphibious resources” of the Navy, Coast Guard and Army Corp of Engineers to southern Louisiana to help rebuild levies and get eight shut-down gas processing plants back into operation. That was just one of several actions, the ACC recommended to alleviate the natural gas supply problem and high gas prices, as two major chemical manufacturers raised the prices of their products.