Extreme

Starting at the extreme southern end of its service territory in the agricultural and energy hub of Bakersfield, CA, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Thursday kicked off the start of its five-year, $1.7 billion change-out of 10.3 million electric and natural gas meters to an interactive, smart metering system — the largest U.S. utility meter replacement ever.

Starting at the extreme southern end of its service territory in the agricultural and energy hub of Bakersfield, CA, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. Thursday kicked off the start of its five-year, $1.7 billion change-out of 10.3 million electric and natural gas meters to an interactive, smart metering system — the largest U.S. utility meter replacement ever.

Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. plans to offer its business customers what it is calling “extreme energy efficiency” services through 2008 that individually could save up to 250,000 therms annually. The utility has committed at least $2.4 million as part of a new Energy-Efficiency Grant Program.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week in its Short-Term Energy Outlook that “barring extreme weather for the rest of the year,” the Henry Hub spot price’s 2006 average is expected to be more than a dollar less than it was in 2005.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday in its Short-Term Energy Outlook that “barring extreme weather for the rest of the year,” the Henry Hub spot price’s 2006 average is expected to be more than a dollar less than it was in 2005.

With the extreme heat that has cooked much of North America over the past three weeks now in the market’s rear-view mirror and Tropical Depression Chris having faded into oblivion over Cuba during the weekend, most of the cash market continued to drop Monday. But several Rockies/Pacific Northwest/San Juan-Permian ranged from flat to about 60 cents in response to a total shutdown of the Opal (WY) Plant for Tuesday’s gas day (see Daily GPI, July 17).

Citing the continuing fallout from the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the shake-up in the House leadership, the extreme partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill and the mid-term elections later this year, natural gas industry and Capitol Hill officials believe it will be extremely challenging during the second session of the 109th Congress to get legislation passed that would expand access to onshore and offshore energy supplies.

Northwest reminded shippers that during the Jan. 4-6 period its market area experienced extreme cold that caused heavy drafting on the system, and the pipeline’s Jackson Prairie storage account dropped from 1.8 Bcf to 1.4 Bcf in those three days “even with the assistance of a few customers realigning their supplies.” Several weather sources have indicated that similar weather would again reach the market area beginning Sunday (Jan. 25), Northwest said. In addition, it will be conducting maintenance on the Columbia Gorge section of the pipe during the first week in February. To ensure system integrity and maintain adequate storage levels for the upcoming maintenance, Northwest declared a Stage III entitlement (with 13% tolerance for overruns for receiving parties north of the Kemmerer Compressor Station) effective Monday until further notice.

Noting forecasts of sub-zero cold for much of Wisconsin Wednesday night and Thursday, ANR declared an Extreme Condition effective at 9 p.m. CST Wednesday until further notice. ANR said the action lowers its “Swing Percentage” (essentially, negative imbalance tolerance) from 10% to 5%, and it is not allowing any Unauthorized Overrun under Rate Schedules FTS-1, FTS-2, FTS-3, STS and ETS. The pipeline also asked that all receipts and deliveries in Wisconsin, excluding ETS and FTS-3 services, be at a uniform hourly flow rate over a 24-hour period.