England

The Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) urged FERC to quickly approve a proposal by ISO New England Inc. (ISO-NE) to implement a “pay for performance” (PFP) system that would compensate power generators in the region when they exceed their obligations during periods of system stress.

Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) is holding a nonbinding open season for an expansion of 600 MMcf/d-2.2 Bcf/d from the Marcellus-Utica Shales into New England and Atlantic Canada.

Moving forward with their agreement to work together with the Independent System Operator of New England (ISO New England) to diversify the region’s energy supply portfolio, the governors of six New England states are calling on the grid operator to provide technical support and assistance with necessary tariff filings for new electric and natural gas infrastructure.

As cold — albeit waning — continued to grip much of the United States Tuesday, power plants in PJM Interconnection and ISO New England wereimpacted by natural gas delivery issues and/or high prices for the fuel. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said pipelines into New England were constrained by the Polar Vortex. Meanwhile, throughput at a central Alabama gas utility was running at 10-year record levels.

State regulators have approved an application from Vermont Gas Systems (VGS) for Phase 1 of its Addison Rutland Natural Gas Project (ANGP), which would extend service to the towns of Monkton, Ferrisburgh, Vergennes, New Haven, Bristol, Middlebury and East Middlebury in Addison County, the South Burlington, VT-based utility said.

The governors of six New England states have committed to work together with the Independent System Operator of New England (ISO New England) to advance an energy infrastructure initiative that diversifies the region’s energy supply portfolio while ensuring that the benefits and costs of transmission and pipeline investments “are shared appropriately” among the states.

New England’s natural gas infrastructure will be increasingly under pressure from demand growth from the power sector in coming years, with 11 of 14 sub-regions expected to exceed constraint capacity levels on more than 30 days/year under the current infrastructure, according to Benjamin D’Antonio, counsel and analyst for the New England States Committee on Electricity (NESCE).

In its first full fall forecast of the year, Weather Services International (WSI) said it expects temperatures nationally to average cooler than normal from the Northern Plains into the Ohio Valley over the next three months, with above-normal temperatures elsewhere, particularly across portions of Texas and the Southwest.

A FERC quarterly update of various regional efforts to coordinate natural gas and electric markets shows that the New England and Northeast generation markets will continue to be the most gas-dependent during the upcoming heating season.