Team

A team of El Paso Natural Gas executives took the opportunityyesterday to explain in detail to their transportation customersthe pipeline’s new capacity-allocation proposal, but many left theFERC technical conference more bewildered than when they arrived.

Growing power generation and LDC demand for gas have promptedPeoples Energy and The Coastal Corp. to team up to develop a130-mile gas pipeline from Indiana to Wisconsin. The pipe, aimed atincremental growth markets, is intended to serve electric powerplants and local utility growth markets in northern Illinois,northwestern Indiana and Wisconsin beginning in late 2001. Initialcapacity will be 1.4 Bcf/d. According to the North AmericanElectric Reliability Council, the region will need more than 8,200megawatts of additional generating capacity by 2005.

Questar Pipeline Co. and Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) havesigned an agreement to jointly own a proposed 75-mile interstatenatural gas pipeline extending from the Price Area in eastern Utahto a proposed interconnect with Kern River Gas Transmission Co.(Kern River) near Elberta, UT. The line would have a minimumcapacity of 250,000 Dth/d and would begin service in winter20001-2002.

Questar Pipeline Co. and Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) havesigned an agreement to jointly own a proposed 75-mile interstatenatural gas pipeline extending from the Price Area in eastern Utahto a proposed interconnect with Kern River Gas Transmission Co.(Kern River) near Elberta, UT. The line would have a minimumcapacity of 250,000 Dth/d and would begin service in winter2001-2002.

GPU Advanced Resources of Reading, PA, and NUI Energy, ofBedminster, NJ, formed a retail marketing alliance that will giveeach company access to the other’s unregulated retail gas andelectric customers. GPU Advanced Resources currently serves about17,000 electric customers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while NUIis active in retail gas customer choice programs in New Jersey,Pennsylvania and Maryland. The alliance is effective immediately.

GPU Advanced Resources of Reading, PA, and NUI Energy, ofBedminster, NJ, formed a retail marketing alliance that will giveeach company access to the other’s unregulated retail gas andelectric customers. GPU Advanced Resources currently serves about17,000 electric customers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while NUIis active in retail gas customer choice programs in New Jersey,Pennsylvania and Maryland. The alliance is effective immediately.

New KN Energy chief Richard Kinder must have put the fear of God in the NGPL pipeline team. After years of pipeline underutilization and decontracting, NGPL locked in contracts last week for nearly all of its firm transportation capacity, just as shareholders of Kinder Morgan and KN were approving the $900 million stock-for-stock merger of the two companies. KN Energy’s transformation and recovery could be one of the fastest seen in the energy industry in a long time.

Separating itself from government-created organizations like theCalifornia Power Exchange, the privately funded California-basedAutomated Power Exchange (APX) yesterday (July 27) announced plansto set up shop with a cash-based exchange in Illinois this fallwhen customer choice begins (Oct. 1) in the electricity industry.The announcement was made in Chicago in conjunction with localinvestor-owned utility Commonwealth Edison, whose transmissionsystem will be used to create a competitive power market inIllinois.

El Paso Energy’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline and Consolidated NaturalGas’ CNG Transmission jointly unveiled the Atlantic AllianceProject on Monday. If successful, this project will transport up to750,000 Dth/d from Chicago market center and the Niagara ImportPoint into eastern markets.