Instituted

FERC Thursday set for evidentiary hearing and instituted a Section 5 investigation of Southwest Gas Storage’s rates for jurisdictional storage services, which shippers on affiliate Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line, industry associations and customer advocate groups allege are “unjust and unreasonable.”

Expressing concern over the electric sector’s lack of scheduling coordination with natural gas pipelines, FERC last Wednesday instituted a Section 206 inquiry under the Federal Power Act (FPA) into the scheduling and compensation practices of independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs).

Citing the lack of coordination between the scheduling practices of the natural gas and electric sectors, FERC on Wednesday instituted a Section 206 inquiry under the Federal Power Act (FPA) into the scheduling and compensation mechanisms of independent system operators (ISOs) and regional transmission organizations (RTOs).

The currency devaluation instituted last Sunday in Argentina is expected to impact both the sales and costs of Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co., which has 17% of its oil and gas reserves in the South American country. The company expects it will likely recognize non-cash charges to reflect the impact of the peso devaluation, but it is too early to assess what those charges may be.

California regulators instituted a blackout mitigation program among nonresidential customers in which they can schedule reductions of their power use during peak-demand hours in exchange for a fixed per-kilowatt-hour payment. The action by the California Public Utilities Commission is a smaller version of a proposal made earlier in the month by Houston-based Reliant Energy for a “negawatt” program that would include an auction of voluntarily reduced load, rather than a fixed payment amount.

California regulators Thursday instituted a blackout mitigation program among nonresidential customers in which they can schedule reductions of their power use during peak-demand hours in exchange for a fixed per-kilowatt-hour payment. The action by the California Public Utilities Commission is a smaller version of a proposal made earlier in the month by Houston-based Reliant Energy for a “negawatt” program that would include an auction of voluntarily reduced load, rather than a fixed payment amount.

With a winter season peak demand of less than 30,000 MW,California nonetheless Monday instituted rolling blackouts of 1,000MW across nearly the entire state shortly after Noon PST. TheCal-ISO said the system was down 14,000 MW of capacity due toplanned maintenance, a generator accident, lower imports and somepower loss from qualifying facility (QF) cogeneration plants.

Koch Gateway re-instituted a force majeure Thursday inconnection with the Compressor #1 station at its Bistineau (LA)storage facility. The pipeline had declared a force majeure Tuesdaywhen it took the station down for unscheduled repairs, cutting byhalf the facility’s normal injection capacity of 500 MMcf/d. Itannounced Wednesday the repairs had been completed and that fullinjection capacity was being restored for Thursday’s gas day.However, problems developed during the station’s startup. KochGateway said Thursday it was honoring that day’s Bistineaunominations but not accepting intraday nominations. Injectioncapability is back to 250 MMcf/d until further notice.