Cure

Echoing the warnings of many other utilities across the country, Alabama Gas Corp. (Alagasco) told its gas customers Wednesday that higher bills are on the way this coming heating season. Following Piedmont Natural Gas’ lead earlier in the week, the utility also called for the implementation of a comprehensive national energy strategy, which it believes is necessary to address high natural gas prices (see Daily GPI, July 8).

The cure and the illness in California’s electricity crisisshared the spotlight Wednesday as the state finished its whirlwind27-hour, sealed-bid power auction and the state’s third majorinvestor-owned utility appealed to state regulators for a five-yearsurcharge and a $100 million cash-conservation program to avoid thefinancial torpor of its two larger fellows private-sectorutilities.

Disappointed at the inability of El Paso Natural Gas and its shippers to cure the capacity-allocation ills on the pipeline on their own, FERC last week prescribed its own antidote that requires El Paso to assign firm capacity at the four Topock delivery points based on a “one-time election” in which the shippers will decide how much of their contract delivery rights to designate to each point

State officials have launched an all-out effort to cure or atleast contain California’s runaway electric power market, sending$100 million in rate relief to customers of San Diego Gas &Electric, putting construction of new power plants on a fast trackand loosening the grip of the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX).

State officials have launched an all-out effort to cure or atleast contain California’s runaway electric power market, sending$100 million in rate relief to customers of San Diego Gas &Electric, putting construction of new power plants on a fast trackand loosening the grip of the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX).

The new chief executive at PacifiCorp decided the cure for thecompany’s sickly earnings is a strategy successfully attempted byother utility companies that found themselves in trouble: get backto basics.