electric

In outlining Duke Energy’s transition from an “energy superstore” into “two pure-play powerhouses,” CEO James Rogers predicted that the new Duke Energy pure-play electric company would grow ongoing diluted earnings per share by an average of 4-6% over at least the next three years through solid organic growth and a 1-1.5%/year increase in electricity demand.

After issuing late Tuesday a customer-specific high-inventory OFO for Wednesday, Pacific Gas & Electric expanded it into a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Thursday. The systemwide OFO carries penalties of $1/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.

In outlining Duke Energy’s transition from an “energy superstore” into “two pure-play powerhouses,” CEO James Rogers predicted that the new Duke Energy pure-play electric company would grow ongoing diluted earnings per share by an average of 4-6% over at least the next three years through solid organic growth and a 1-1.5%/year increase in electricity demand.

American Electric Power subsidiary Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) plans to issue a request for proposals Nov. 3 for about 68.5 Bcf of gas supply and transportation service to meet the requirements of its existing and proposed gas-fired power generation starting in July 2007. The company said 40 Bcf would be annual baseload supply with 28.5 Bcf of seasonal service. PSO currently has seven power plants with 4,083 MW of generation, a portion of which is gas-fired. It also is planning to add 320 MW of gas-fired generation at its existing Riverside and Southwestern power plants. The company has included the daily gas requirements and average demand swings for each of its plants in the RFP. Bidders can submit bids for two to five years of supply. Contracts will be awarded in January. For more information, go to http://www.psoklahoma.com/.

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) warned in a report last week that U.S. demand for electricity will increase by 19% between now and 2015, while confirmed power capacity will increase by only 6%. Capacity margins are projected to drop below minimum target levels in the next two to three years in Texas, New England, the Mid-Atlantic area, the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains, with many other areas reaching minimum levels later in the 10-year period.

Pacific Gas & Electric expanded Tuesday’s customer-specific high-inventory OFO into a systemwide Stage 3 OFO for Wednesday. Penalties were set at $5/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.

Pacific Gas & Electric kept a systemwide high-inventory OFO in effect through Sunday before lifting it Monday. Then the utility declared a customer-specific OFO for Tuesday. PG&E also noted late last week that it has suspended pipeline balancing storage injections “because the entire inventory reserved for pipeline balancing has been exceeded.” As a result, the utility’s California Gas Transmission (CGT) system is looking at calling late afternoon OFOs as a way to manage ongoing overdeliveries that exceed demand. “When an OFO is necessary, CGT makes every effort to call the OFO by 7:30 a.m. Pacific time the day prior to the gas flow day, using a forecast of demand and scheduled supply. However, the forecast of system conditions at 7:30 a.m. does not always indicate the necessity for an OFO. When subsequent changes in system demand and/or scheduled supply necessitate some inventory control action, CGT’s two options are either to call an OFO later in the day or hold the interconnect constraints in a nomination cycle to the constraints which existed in a previous cycle. Customers have indicated a strong preference for CGT to call OFOs rather than holding to interconnect constraints. Therefore, we will consider calling an OFO as late as 6 p.m. Pacific time for the following gas day. We anticipate that calling an OFO, if deemed necessary, after reviewing the evening cycle nominations may reduce the need to hold the interconnect constraints to control pipeline system inventory.”

Citing the mild hurricane season, increased U.S. natural gas production and its “proactive procurement” program, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. (BGE), a utility subsidiary of Constellation Energy, announced last week that its residential customers can anticipate a 15% decrease from last winter in the gas portion of their total bill during the upcoming winter heating season, which begins Nov. 1, 2006 and runs through March 31, 2007.

Calling it a nod for “cow power,” Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Thursday that it has singed an agreement with a manure-to-methane producer to deliver 8 MMcf/d of “renewable natural gas” (RNG) produced from cow dung. Promising to leave no meadow cake undigested, PG&E labeled this as its “newest and most innovative” renewable energy project, albeit one of the smallest in terms of energy output.