Stabilization

As a sign of some stabilization of a declining Jackson Prairie storage account balance, Northwest revised its Unauthorized Overrun Entitlement (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9) from a Stage I (at 3% imbalance tolerance) to a Stage III (13%) until further notice Monday. The entitlement affects all Receiving Party customers north of the Kemmerer (WY) Compressor Station. “To avoid penalties and a potential OFO through the Green River and Kemmerer Compressor Stations, Northwest requests your immediate cooperation and assistance to stay within your scheduled volumes by bringing on additional supplies north of Kemmerer,” the pipeline told customers, adding that it appreciated their quick response to its request to pay back imbalances owed to Northwest north of Kemmerer this past week. Customers who still owe gas to Northwest north of Kemmerer were encouraged to make payback arrangements as soon as possible. A suspension of Northwest deliveries to a CIG interconnect due to a line rupture late last week about 22 miles south of the Green River Compressor Station (see Daily GPI, Dec. 9) remained in effect Monday with no prognosis for restoration of service provided.

California power marketer/generators blasted the state transmission grid operator’s (Cal-ISO’s) federally filed market stabilization plan as potentially being “extremely detrimental” to the state’s struggling electricity markets and urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject it. The plan promises to cause “more blackouts in the West, chase away much-needed new generation, and jack up wholesale power costs,” according to the Western Power Trading Forum, a trade and lobbying group for marketers, scheduling coordinators, power exchanges and generators. The Cal-ISO proposal includes price caps and restrictions on selling California-generated power out of state. “It is yet another attempt to heap more rules on an already overruled market,” said Gary Ackerman, executive director of the trading forum.