A unique coalition of the major natural gas companies of southwestern Pennsylvania — Equitable Resources, Dominion Resources, Columbia Gas and T.W. Phillips — has joined The Salvation Army, Conservation Consultants Inc., Lowe’s Home Improvement Centers and Plumbers’ Union locals to provide, and where possible install, hot water heaters for residents who lost theirs in the recent flooding caused by parts of Hurricane Ivan, which raged through western Pennsylvania last week.
Dominion
Articles from Dominion
Transportation Notes
Dominion activated an OFO Friday for customers behind six New York utilities downstream of its Boom and Stateline facilities, as it had cautioned might be necessary in an OFO Advisory issued Thursday (see Daily GPI, Jan. 9). No OFO was issued for several Mid-Atlantic utilities that had been listed in a separate OFO Advisory.
Industry Briefs
Dominion Transmission and Texas Eastern Transmission received approval Wednesday of their FERC petition to increase operations of compressors at their jointly-owned Oakford Storage Complex in Westmoreland County, PA to their design rating in order to enhance flexibility and reliability of the facility. The increase would be accomplished by adjusting software controls. FERC noted the change would increase power available for early and late season withdrawals, and may be used to maintain withdrawal capabilities in the event that existing horsepower becomes unavailable.
Transportation Notes
Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFO beyond Thursday.
Transportation Notes
Dominion rescinded Wednesday OFOs #5 and #6 that were issued earlier this week, but said OFOs #3 and #4 (implemented last week) remain in effect. See the bulletin board for details.
Returning Cold Weather Sends East Prices Soaring
Dollar-plus gains at all Northeast citygates and on Dominion in Appalachia were mixed into overall cash spikes Tuesday. Upticks of half a dollar or greater were consistent throughout the East and in the Waha/Permian Basin markets. The rest of the West tended to lag behind but still saw fairly strong advances of about 20-30 cents or so.
PacifiCorp Power Grows Gas Storage Business
PacifiCorp Energy Canada’s Enstor division said last week that it has acquired Dominion Canada’s 40% stake in the Alberta Hub natural gas storage facility. The company’s affiliate, PacifiCorp Power Marketing Inc. (PPM), said it plans to market the capacity and add more storage facilities to its portfolio in the near future. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Transportation Notes
Saying its storage pools are full and customers are overdelivering gas into its system, Dominion has implemented an OFO to protect its system integrity. The order affects all customers under Rate Schedules FT, FTNN, IT and MCS.
Industry Briefs
Dominion Resources and Peoples Energy announced plans to expandElwood Energy LLC’s peaking gas-fired power plant in Elwood, IL, byan additional 600 MW. The expansion to the state’s first merchantpower facility will double the capacity to 1,200 MW and is thesecond phase in a process that is expected to eventually bringtotal capacity of the plant to 3,100 MW. The $230 million expansionwill add four General Electric 150 MW gas-fired turbines.Construction to add the high efficiency, low-emission turbines willbegin this summer and be completed during the summer of 2001, intime to meet peak summer demand. The Elwood facility is locatedadjacent to several interstate gas pipelines that provide access tocompetitively priced gas supplies. The facility’s generatorsinterconnect to a high-capacity Commonwealth Edison transmissioncorridor that provides delivery to Midwest power markets. Contractdiscussions with potential purchasers of Elwood’s expanded outputare underway, but details are not available. Existing production issold under multi-year contracts with Commonwealth Edison and EngageEnergy US, LP. Elwood’s existing 600 megawatts of capacity wasplaced in service in July 1999. When fully built, Elwood would beIllinois’ largest merchant facility.
Industry Briefs
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the merger ofDominion Resources Inc. and Consolidated Natural Gas Co. Stillpending are approvals by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissionand the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are expected byyear end. The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of2000.