Difficulty

Although the industry probably won’t have difficulty attaining a near record level of gas in storage for the upcoming heating season, some observers would like to see the federal government exert more control over storage to ensure there is sufficient gas in reserve on a regular basis throughout the year to keep downward pressure on gas prices.

Although the industry probably won’t have difficulty attaining a near record level of gas in storage for the upcoming heating season, some observers would like to see the federal government exert more control over storage to ensure there is sufficient gas in reserve on a regular basis throughout the year to keep downward pressure on gas prices.

The difficulty in determining savings from switching to another supplier can be the primary reason for not participating in customer choice programs. But a new handy calculator on the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) web site (www.pickocc.org) makes the math easy for residential customers. The interactive calculator helps consumers compare rates of natural gas suppliers to their current natural gas company. Consumers enter the current rate of a natural gas supplier in the calculator, their county sales tax and their monthly natural gas usage to receive a side-by-side comparison of what their monthly natural gas bill would be if they chose a supplier versus staying with their gas utility. “Ohio consumers deserve easy to use resources to assist them in making educated utility choices,” said Robert S. Tongren, Consumers’ Counsel. “This new tool will aid consumers in calculating potential savings based on their natural gas usage and suppliers’ offers.” Three of Ohio’s natural gas utilities have offered natural gas choice programs since 1997: Cincinnati Gas & Electric, Columbia Gas of Ohio and Dominion East Ohio. About 38% of those companies’ eligible customers have participated by choosing an alternative gas supplier. Gas choice is being offered this winter for the first time for Dayton area customers of Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio.

The difficulty in determining savings from switching to another supplier can be the primary reason for not participating in customer choice programs. But a new handy calculator on the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) web site (www.pickocc.org) makes the math easy for residential customers.

Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday downgraded the debt of AES Corp., citing concerns about smaller future dividends from subsidiaries, weaker power prices and “deteriorating conditions” in international markets were the company holds substantial generation interests. The downgrade affects about $20 billion of debt securities, and Moody’s warned that AES will remain on review for another possible downgrade.

All of the climate trends pointed to this past winter as being especially cold, and the warm weather completely “baffled” one of the leading meteorologists in the country. However, the warm outcome only pointed to how difficult long-term seasonal forecasting is and how much is still being learned in making predictions, said Jon Davis, the chief meteorologist for Salomon Smith Barney on Wednesday at the GasMart/Power 2002 conference in Reno.