electricity

FERC staff has offered the industry and price developers another opportunity to comment on the current state of natural gas and electricity price formation and to say whether there has been any increase in confidence in natural gas and electric price indices.

Piggybacking on the electricity rate cut from its bankruptcy settlement this month, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Wednesday that its retail natural gas utility bills will drop 33.8% in March due to a combination of expected lower demand and declining wholesale prices. The average bill of $68 in February will drop to $45.78 this month, the PG&E utility said.

Along with its two more headline-grabbing actions on electricity procurement and transmission, the California Public Utilities Commission last Thursday established a two-phase proceeding to be completed before the end of the year to “ensure reliable, long-term supplies of natural gas” are available to the state.

With state regulatory okays for its near-term programs designed to shave 40 MW of electricity and 5 million therms of gas loads, Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) announced Friday it will seek outside help through a request-for-proposal (RFP) process to reach and exceed its conservation goals.

Strong contributions from its core regulated natural gas and electricity businesses are expected to help KeySpan Corp. improve earnings next year in the range of $2.55 to $2.75/share, the company said Monday. The Brooklyn, NY-based company also affirmed that its 2003 earnings will range between $2.45-$2.60/share, excluding special items.

Constellation Energy Group said it purchased Blackhawk Energy Services, a full service provider of natural gas and electricity to customers in Illinois, and Kaztex Energy Management, a full service provider of natural gas to customers in Wisconsin, from Wisconsin Energy Corp. The two companies serve 1,100 customers, and together with other recent purchases, make Constellation the nation’s largest competitive supplier of energy to large customers. The companies extend Constellation’s commercial and industrial base in the Midwest, noted Thomas F. Brady, senior vice president of corporate strategy and development at Constellation. “With the addition of these two companies to our portfolio, Constellation Energy’s total natural gas supply for large customers now exceeds 250 Bcf/year, significantly enhancing our position in this competitive marketplace.” Since 2002, Constellation has continued to increase its load serving business through the acquisitions of NewEnergy, Alliance, Fellon-McCord, and now Blackhawk and Kaztex.

Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has awarded a Shell affiliate a contract to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Altamira in the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas. The contract calls for Shell’s Gas del Litoral to supply 500 MMcf/d of gas from the terminal to the CFE.

Mexico’s Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) has awarded a Shell affiliate a contract to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal in Altamira in the Gulf Coast state of Tamaulipas. The contract calls for Shell’s Gas del Litoral to supply 500 MMcf/d of gas from the terminal to the CFE.

FERC last Wednesday approved a combined settlement between El Paso Electric Co., the California attorney general, the California Electricity Oversight Board (CEOB) and FERC trial staff aimed at resolving allegations that the utility colluded with Enron during California’s energy crisis to manipulate the wholesale market and artificially inflate prices.