Customer

Southern Company Services Inc. last week asked FERC to grant a”limited waiver” of Destin Pipeline Co. L.L.C.’s suspension of itsblanket-certificate authority so it can complete a delivery pointto supply gas to a generation plant being developed in Mississippi.

Coastal’s Wyoming Interstate Co. has completed construction ofits Medicine Bow Lateral pipeline and begun moving gas. “Wereceived excellent customer response to this project from the verybeginning, and we now are ready to move more of their Powder RiverBasin gas to market,” said Jon Whitney, CEO of Colorado InterstateGas (CIG), which operates Wyoming Interstate (WIC).

The floodgates of customer choice for electric power users swungopen in New Jersey last week and among the first out the door was agroup, anchored by chemical manufacturers, of 64 large energy userstaking 360 MW and 843 federal government facilities, including theStatue of Liberty. (see report following)

In response to customer requests, Transco has enhanced the LEADreports available in TRANSIT to show best available allocated databased upon a one-day lag for all shippers rather than a two-day lagas has been shown in the past.

Western Resources and Kansas City Power & Light filed withthe FERC a settlement relating to market power, transmission andcustomer protection issues stemming from the planned merger of thetwo companies. Staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissionand other major parties to the case support the filing, accordingto Western.

Start-up costs and rapid Georgia customer acquisitions by itsSouthStar Energy Services partnership with Dynegy and AGLResources, cost Piedmont Natural Gas about $0.06/share during itsthird quarter, which ended July 31, the company reported this week.It experienced a net loss of $8.2 million (-$0.26/share) during thequarter, compared with a net loss of $6.3 million (1$0.20/share)during the same period a year earlier. As of Oct. 1, SouthStar willbe serving more than 450,000 new gas customers in Georgia. Theearnings per share impact of this venture for the first nine monthsof the year was -$0.10/share. Piedmont also noted that weather inits territory was 57% of the thirty-year normal heating degreedays. The company’s margin (revenues less cost of gas) was $44.4million compared with $45.5 million for the comparable year-agoperiod. For the nine-month period, basic earnings per share were$2.17, compared with $2.32 for the year-ago period, and margin was$279.8 million compared with $282.6 million for the prior yearperiod.

The customer choice program in Washington D.C. has opened toinclude all District residents and more large and small commercialcustomers Washington Gas announced Friday. The Public ServiceCommission of the District of Columbia recently expanded theresidential program, lowered the requirements to qualify for thelarge commercial program, and approved Washington Gas’ smallcommercial program.

South Jersey Gas Co. filed a petition with New Jersey’s Board ofPublic Utilities (BPU) to increase eligibility in its customerchoice pilot program from 25,000 to 50,000. The announcement marksthe second time in the past 12 months the utility has increased thesize of its pilot. The BPU has set Dec. 31 as a deadline to definecomplete statewide gas deregulation. South Jersey said 22,000customers have participated in the program. The utility serves260,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in thestate.

FERC yesterday set the merger between Western Resources Inc. andKansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) for evidentiary hearingon issues involving market power and customer protection.