Principle

Officials from National Grid and Keyspan Corp. said last week the proposed merger of their companies, agreed to in principle July 6 by the staff of the New York State Department of Public Service and other parties, will save customers an estimated $602.8 million through a five-year rate freeze.

Officials from National Grid and Keyspan Corp. said Monday the proposed merger of their companies, agreed to in principle July 6 by the staff of the New York State Department of Public Service and other parties, will save customers an estimated $602.8 million through a five-year rate freeze.

Interstate pipeline National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. last Monday filed an “agreement in principle” at FERC that it says resolves all the issues raised in a complaint lodged by several Pennsylvania and New York agencies.

Interstate pipeline National Fuel Gas Supply Corp. on Monday filed an “agreement in principle” at FERC that it says resolves all the issues raised in a complaint lodged by several Pennsylvania and New York agencies.

Piedmont Natural Gas has reached a settlement in principle with the North Carolina attorney general’s office over the utility’s rate mechanism. North Carolina agreed to drop its appeal of the rate mechanism, and Piedmont agreed to share with its customers a portion of what is recovered through the mechanism, which could return up to $1.5 million a year to its customers through Oct. 31, 2008. The Charlotte, NC-based utility’s Customer Utilization Tracker (CUT) was approved and adopted in a 2005 rate case before the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC). It separated the collection of utility margin from customer volumes, which vary depending on prevailing weather conditions, appliance efficiencies and customer conservation practices. The portion of funds to be shared with customers would be applied equally to the development of new conservation programs by Piedmont in consultation with the NCUC Public Staff and the attorney general’s office and to the reduction of rate increases associated with the CUT mechanism. Piedmont distributes natural gas to 990,000 residential, commercial and industrial utility customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, including 61,000 customers served by municipalities that are wholesale customers.

Piedmont Natural Gas said Thursday it has reached a settlement in principle with the North Carolina attorney general’s office over the utility’s rate mechanism. North Carolina agreed to drop its appeal of the rate mechanism, and Piedmont agreed to share with its customers a portion of what is recovered through the mechanism, which could return up to $1.5 million a year to its customers through Oct. 31, 2008.

Williams Cos. on Tuesday announced an agreement in principle to pay $290 million to settle class-action lawsuits that were filed on behalf of purchasers of Williams’ stock between July 24, 2000 and July 22, 2002. The original lawsuit, filed in January 2002, alleged Williams made “material misrepresentations to the markets” to inflate its stock price (see Daily GPI, Jan. 30, 2002).

Sempra Energy on Monday announced it reached a definitive agreement to sell an indirect subsidiary whose principle assets are two natural gas storage facilities, Bluewater Gas Storage and Pine Prairie Energy Center, for approximately $250 million to a joint venture of Plains All American Pipeline LP and Vulcan Capital.

Senior management officials of Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) “have approved in principle” a sales agreement and auction protocol to pave the way for the sale of the company’s 500- to 600-mile natural gas gathering network in northern California to individual producers on its system.