Series

Responding to a California power market gone haywire and teetering on the brink of operational and financial disaster, FERC Friday issued a series of remedial measures, virtually stripping the Cal-PX and Cal-ISO of their control of the market and calling market stakeholders together to negotiate bilateral forward contracts.

Responding to a California power market gone haywire andteetering on the brink of operational and financial disaster, FERCFriday issued a series of remedial measures, virtually strippingthe Cal-PX and Cal-ISO of their control of the market and callingmarket stakeholders together to negotiate bilateral forwardcontracts.

FERC last week directed the Cross Bay Pipeline Co. L.L.C. torespond to a series of questions mostly focusing on the East Coastproject’s byzantine financial and capacity-lease arrangements thathave prompted protests from customers.

FERC has directed the Cross Bay Pipeline Co. LLC to respond to aseries of questions dealing with the financing, leasing,engineering, operations and rate design of the East Coast projectthat has come under fire from customers.

FERC’s Office of Energy Projects (OEP) plans to hold a series ofpublic meetings throughout the nation to encourage interstate gaspipelines to develop “strategies for constructive publicparticipation in the earliest stages” of their project planning.

Cash prices finally experienced some retrenchment Thursdayfollowing an awe-inspiring series of growth spurts during May, buta near-total collapse of the screen along with the usual dropoff inweekend demand is expected to result in significantly greaterdeclines today.

California regulators Thursday approved a series of rateadjustments for Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas andElectric Co. that help encourage future merchant natural gaspipeline and electric power plant projects as well as resulting ina $248 million gas utility net rate decrease. For SoCalGas thatequals $210 million in rate cuts, the bulk of the reduction ($158.9million) going to residential and small business customers.SDG&E’s gas rates drop a total of $37 million, $18 million ofwhich is for small, core customers.

California regulators last Thursday approved a series of rateadjustments for Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas andElectric that are designed to encourage future merchant natural gaspipeline and electric power plant projects, as well as result in a$248 million gas utility net rate decrease.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is planning to hold a series of”summits” later this month to address the potential for more poweroutages this summer. Three summits are planned for April 24 —Hartford, CT, New Orleans, LA, and in an undetermined northern NewJersey city – with Energy Secretary Bill Richardson scheduled tojet to each one, along with utility executives, state regulatorsand local officials. A follow-up summit will be held April 28 inSacramento, CA. Richardson is expected to address measures thefederal government can take to prevent a repeat of brownouts,outages and price spikes during the summer months. While thesituation may have improved somewhat over last summer, “hecertainly doesn’t think we’re out of the woods yet,” said DOEspokesman Tom Welch.