Further

With the convergence of regulatory, political and financial solutions for California’s investor-owned utilities heating up Monday in the state legislature and regulatory halls, questions about additional retail rate increases are being raised. Officials with Gov. Gray Davis are going out of their way to squash the notion that any more increases are imminent, on heels of 40% hikes earlier this year that just became effective in June.

El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation Saturday. It was still in effect Monday until further notice.

California sailed through the last week of June free of blackouts and power alerts as the projections of controlled outages were on the decline as state officials focused on possible refunds through the federal settlement negotiations now ongoing and new power supply projects coming on line in the nick of time.

Due to Houston area flooding, the Greenway 9 Plaza building that houses Tennessee’s Transportation Services Department is closed until further notice, the pipeline said Tuesday. Volume analysts can be reached at alternative phone numbers listed on the bulletin board. Affiliate ANR is also being affected by the disruption of power and communications at Greenway 9. Customers may use cell phone numbers for ANR representatives (provided on the bulletin board) or call Joseph Pollard, director, transportation services, at (713) 724-3095.

Days after receiving preliminary authorization from FERC for a $134 million, 24-mile Boston extension project (see NGI, April 16), Maritimes & Northeast is petitioning FERC for authorization to operate additional compression units at its existing compressor stations in Richmond and Baileyville, ME. The new compression will bring the pipeline’s capacity to 440,000 Dth/d from the current 400,000 Dth/d.

Days after receiving preliminary authorization from FERC for a $134 million, 24-mile Boston extension project (see Daily GPI, April 16), Maritimes & Northeast is petitioning FERC for authorization to operate additional compression units at its existing compressor stations in Richmond and Baileyville, ME. The new compression will bring the pipeline’s capacity to 440,000 Dth/d from the current 400,000 Dth/d.

Tennessee issued a systemwide OFO Balancing Alert that was to take effect until further notice Saturday, saying it was experiencing high system linepack “due to overproduction, reduced demand and limited storage injection capacity.” The OFO requires customers under Rate Schedules LMS-MA and LMS-PA (including SAs) to keep actual daily deliveries into the system less than or equal to scheduled quantities plus 2% (or 500 dekatherms, whichever is greater) and actual daily takes out of the system greater than or equal to scheduled quantities minus 2% (or 500 dekatherms, whichever is greater). Customers will be charged $15 plus the applicable Regional Daily Spot Price for each dekatherm of gas outside of the designated tolerance, Tennessee said. Penalties will not apply to underdeliveries into the system or overtakes out of the system.

California Gov. Gray Davis “delivered” on his plan to buy outthe transmission systems of the financially-troubled investor-ownedutilities in the state Friday, outlining the framework of a deal,but with no dollar signs attached and no on-the-record agreementswith the utilities.

El Paso declared an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situationFriday that was to remain in effect until further notice.