Normal

If this winter ends up with a normal number of heating degree days (HDDs), natural gas storage should be tighter than last year but still well above 10-year norms, an energy consultant said last week. That realization seemed to resonate across the market as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a lower-than-expected 162 Bcf storage withdrawal on Thursday. January futures crashed $1.348 on Thursday and then collapsed another 64 cents Friday to end the week at $12.283.

PG&E’s California Gas Transmission system has declared a customer specific operational flow order for Tuesday’s gas day. System inventories are expected to rise above normal operating limits. The pipeline had a Stage 3 systemwide OFO with a 10% tolerance in place on Saturday.

A sixth consecutive below-normal water year for the Pacific Northwest carries more financial than operating impact on the region and the greater Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) grid system covering 12 states, according to a “Hydro Update” report by Fitch Ratings released earlier this month.

CenterPoint issued a System-Wide Alert Wednesday, citing a forecast for colder than normal conditions moving into its service area. Due to the need to maintain adequate linepack and preserve storage flexibility to meet FT obligations, CenterPoint is requiring customers, “particularly power plants or other large industrial loads whose swings can cause operational difficulties” for the pipeline’s system “or discrete segments thereof,” to take deliveries as evenly as possible throughout the day. In no case should takes exceed a shipper’s hourly entitlements by more than 10% in any hour; excessive hourly takes could result in a customer-specific OFO being issued, the pipeline said.

Due to colder than normal temperatures in market-area Zone E/F, Northern Natural Gas called a System Overrun Limitation day for the zone Tuesday.

Westcoast restored its normal 10% pack/10% draft imbalance tolerance range Thursday after having set it at zero/20% and then 5%/15% previously to encourage drafting of the system because of high linepack.

Due to colder than normal temperatures and system conditions, Northern Natural Gas issued a System Overrun Limitation Sunday. It remains in effect through at least Wednesday’s gas day.

Citing higher than normal forecasted system temperatures, Northern Natural Gas declared a System Underrun Limitation for all market-area zones on New Year’s Day.

Citing forecasts of higher than normal system temperatures Wednesday, Northern Natural Gas declared a System Underrun Limitation for Friday and Saturday (Dec. 26-27).