Debated

Although the rate of service interruptions to industrial andcommercial gas customers on its system during January was thehighest in five years, a Public Service Electric and Gas Co.(PSE&G) official told New Jersey regulators yesterday theimpact of the interruptions on the usage and price of home-heatingoil was “negligible.”

While technical conference participants hotly debated FERC’snatural gas transportation initiatives last week, there appeared tobe some areas of agreement – starting with the need for more timeto argue.

While gas industry officials debated the merits of capacityauctions, electronic trading experts last week indicated suchauctions were doable from a technical standpoint but would firstrequire a certain amount of standardization of products,definitions and practices. This immediately raised the eyebrows ofsome critics, who believe that too much standardization could beharmful to the gas industry.

While gas industry officials debated the merits of auctions,electronic trading experts earlier this week indicated they weredoable from a technical standpoint but first would require acertain amount of standardization of products, definitions andpractices.