Test

BC Gas is holding an open season to test market interest in its proposed new Inland Pacific Connector Pipeline, a 153-mile pipeline extending from the Southern Crossing pipeline to the regional marketing hub in Huntingdon, BC (see Daily GPI, April 4).

Washington state regulators Wednesday approved new “time-of-day” rates and incentives to cut power use for customers of Puget Sound Energy (PSE) this summer to help ease the western power shortage.

Sonat lifted Saturday an OFO Type 1 and force majeure associatedwith a shut-in test of its Bear Creek (LA) Storage Facility. BearCreek’s injection/withdrawal capacity was restored to 100%.

The Department of Transportation’s Office of Pipeline Safetyreported yesterday that El Paso Natural Gas has submitted theresults of its tests on the one line (Line 1110) that was the leastaffected by the Aug. 19 explosion and fire on El Paso’s South Mainsystem, as well as a plan for returning the line back to operation.

The price roller coaster continued in the natural gas pit at theNew York Mercantile Exchange Thursday as traders went through themotions of checking the latest hurricane forecast and then tradedaccordingly. Yesterday that translated into selling, by trade andlocals alike, as they reduced their long exposure on the news thatDebby had weakened into a tropical wave.

Although energy e-commerce is a burgeoning industry, there areonly a few electronic exchanges so far that can be used for servingaggregated retail energy customer loads, and even those that are upand running still may need to be customized, according to AvistaAdvantage, an Avista Corp. subsidiary.

Avista Corp. subsidiary Avista Advantage completed a painstakingevaluation of 30 retail energy e-commerce sites and narrowed downthe list to three top power exchanges that can handle aggregatedcustomer loads: Usource via Enermetrix, Excelergy and AMDAX. Avistasaid it intends to conduct a pilot program to evaluate the benefitsof buying power online for end-users using three of its largecustomers with multiple sites.

Natural gas prices again came under selling pressure Monday astraders dealt with below-normal temperatures both outside theirwindows and also in the forecast. After gapping lower at the open,the August contract sifted lower throughout the session and dippedbriefly below key psychological support at $4.00 before closing at$4.002, 14.8 cent lower on the day.

PG&E Corp. is the latest energy giant to seek a toehold inthe fast-growing Arizona merchant power plant market, gaining aninitial state approval last week, but facing up to a half-dozencounty, state and federal environmental reviews for a proposed $500million, 1,040 MW natural gas-fired plant near Phoenix.