electricity

The scandal-ravaged natural gas and electricity industries have hit bottom and are now in recovery mode, said the head of the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) Wednesday.

Once the holder of one of the largest electricity supply deals with California, Allegheny Energy Supply said last week it has filed claims with the state’s Board of Control for what it alleges are “monetary damages” inflicted on it by the state’s “bad-faith actions” abrogating a long-term supply deal. State actions, which still have not terminated the deal, nevertheless have caused the company “significant negative financial” problems, Allegheny said.

Volumes and prices for spot market wholesale electricity purchases by California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) shifted upward over the last two months of 2002, according to statistics released Tuesday by DWR’s Sacramento office. Spot purchases exceeded 1 million MWh (1.056 million MWh) in December, 2002, at an average cost of $43/MWh, in contrast to the previous month when spot purchases hit 906,000 MWh, at an average cost of $38/MWh.

Despite a second straight day record electricity demand, and spiking New York City physical gas prices, natural gas futures traded quietly sideways Tuesday, as neither bull nor bear was willing to influence a move in either direction. On its first day as prompt contract, September slipped 1.4 cents to finish at $2.891, just 0.1 cents above its opening trade for the session and smack-dab in the middle of its $2.85-93 trading range. At 86,242, estimated volume was moderate to light.

At their height a year ago, the domestic natural gas and electricity trading arms of energy companies across the United States employed between 12,000 and 15,000 in front-, middle- and back-offices, many making well above average college-educated salaries. There were nearly 4,000-5,000 sales and marketing professionals, another 6,000-7,000 accountants and analysts, and 2,000 to 3,000 specialists, focusing on transportation and certain contracts. Today, energy trading units are shrinking rapidly, but they won’t disappear, a veteran energy expert said last week. They can’t, he said.

Texas leads the nation in electricity restructuring, overtaking Pennsylvania, according to the latest edition of the Retail Energy Deregulation Index (RED Index), which was released last Monday by the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets (CAEM). The 2001 index shows that despite California’s well-publicized troubles and the impact of the Enron collapse, the U.S. and Canada continue to make progress on electric restructuring.

California regulators Tuesday increased the amount of natural gas and electricity eligible for lower rates, effectively giving small monthly savings to the customers of the state’s major private-sector utilities. The higher baseline levels become effective May 1, following a review of the volumes that was started last year by the state regulatory commission.

The Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO) of Ontario is soliciting bids for a “Multi-Region Natural Gas Infrastructure Study” covering the northeastern United States and Canada. IMO is coordinating the study on behalf of six other entities, including the New York ISO, PJM Interconnection, ISO New England, the Northeast Power Coordinating Council and the North American Electric Reliability Council.

Williams said Wednesday that it has completed the first phase of the Transco pipeline system’s MarketLink expansion project, which will provide much needed incremental natural gas transportation capacity into the northeastern United States. The company added that this project represents the first interstate pipeline expansion completed to serve the New York metropolitan area since 1992.