electric

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. sent its customers some early holiday cheer Thursday, announcing that natural gas bills in December will take a 15% plunge compared to the same month last year, and the wholesale cost of gas is down sharply on the same December 2005-to-December 2006 comparison. Wholesale charges in December also are down 2%-3% compared with November levels.

Citing forecasts of warm weather in its service area, MRT implemented a System Protection Warning Wednesday. See the bulletin board for SPW conditions.

After waiting until late Monday to issue a customer-specific high-inventory OFO for Tuesday, Pacific Gas & Electric expanded the OFO into a systemwide one for Wednesday. The systemwide Stage 2 OFO carried $1/Dth penalties for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a systemwide high-inventory OFO beyond Saturday.

Even if mother nature plans to be unusually harsh on North America this winter, the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) said power customers can rest easy because power generation capacity margins are “adequate.”

Pacific Gas & Electric is lifting Friday a systemwide high-inventory OFO that had been implemented Wednesday.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. wrote a new chapter in the energy industry’s continuing clashes with Native American tribes throughout the West on Thursday when its CEO traveled to the Arizona town of Topock on the Colorado River, which forms the border with California, to solidify an agreement and make a public apology to the Fort Mojave Tribe.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s California Gas Transmission declared a high inventory systemwide operational flow order for Thursday’s gas day. The OFO has a 5% tolerance and $1/Dth penalties for noncompliance.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Tuesday that it forecasts a 26.6% drop in retail natural gas bills in November compared with bills during the same month last year. In November 2005, of course, wholesale natural gas prices were going through the roof because of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on Gulf of Mexico production. In comparison to October 2006 bills averaging $26.58, however, the November bills will be more than 60% higher at $43.55.