Opening

A measure introduced in the New Mexico senate last week was a”good first step” towards opening up the state’s electricityindustry to competition, says the state’s largest utility, althoughit cited certain concerns.

January futures gapped lower on the daily charts for the secondday in a row Tuesday by opening 11 cents less than Monday’s low.But in contrast to Monday’s downward price movement, yesterdayfeatured an upward price trend for the session. At the closingbell, the prompt month had climbed its way back up to $1.958-only1.8 cents off Monday’s settle.

Connecticut regulators, bowing to pressure from marketers, havelowered penalty rates and delayed opening of the market for smallindustrials and large commercial customers of state LDCs until Jan.1.

Scana Energy Marketing, one of only five marketers making thecut for the opening of the Georgia natural gas market Nov. 1, isclaiming the lion’s share of the 16,000 total customers signed upby the Oct. 26 deadline for initial deliveries.

The Georgia Public Service Commission concluded Atlanta GasLight Co.’s historic rate case, opening its statewide gasdistribution system to marketers. The PSC approved a customereducation program for one year and procedures for Atlanta Gas Lightto follow when sharing information with gas marketers about thecompany’s nearly 1.5 million customers. The PSC also orderedAtlanta Gas Light to cut rates by $6 million. The reduction is inaddition to a $7 million rate cut ordered in June.

The New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) reported a fairlyactive first day of trading for the eastern electricity futurescontracts on Friday, with a total volume of 939 contracts traded.This, however, was 282 fewer contracts than the number tradedduring the first day of the western electricity contracts in 1996,a Nymex official said.

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has asked FERC toinitiate a proposed rulemaking for the purpose of opening up aninquiry into the appropriate rate design for interstate natural gaspipelines.

The July Nymex contract looked poised to build on gainsyesterday by opening strong then immediately testing resistance inthe $2.20-21 area. However, for the second day in a row resistanceheld, leading to profit taking that sent July spiraling down tosettle at $2.156, a 3.5-cent loss for the day.

There’s no point in opening the valves on a new pipeline if noone is there to take the gas, Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline toldFERC this week. The pipeline said its only shipper, affiliate DukeEnergy, has backed out of Phase I of its project, deferring itsrequest for 60 MMcf/d of firm transportation until Nov. 1, 1999. Asa result, Maritimes has requested it be allowed to extend itsin-service date by a year and defer cost-recovery while movingforward on construction of most of the system.