Undertake

The Western Interstate Energy Board, the energy wing of the Western Governors Association, voted this week to have the California Energy Commission (CEC) conduct a new western natural gas forecast.

A new western natural gas forecast is expected to be conducted by the California Energy Commission (CEC) for the Western Governors Association, which will be holding a three-day North American Energy Summit later this week in Albuquerque, NM.

Bidding for turned-back capacity on El Paso Natural Gas by full-requirements (FR) shippers will come to a close Friday, despite a last-minute plea by a group of FR shippers for FERC to postpone the deadline, and a challenge by California regulators and utilities to El Paso’s decision to give FR shippers preferential access to the capacity. The bidding is seen as a critical first step in the FERC-ordered plan to convert all of the FR shippers on El Paso to contract-demand (CD) service by Nov. 1 of this year, and end a years-long dispute over the disparate manner in which capacity has been allocated on the pipeline.

While many might say it’s long overdue, FERC last weekauthorized its staff to undertake a “fact-finding investigation”into the wild price volatility and reliability problems that havegripped the bulk power markets over the past couple of summers.

While some might say it’s long overdue, FERC yesterdayauthorized its staff to undertake a “fact-finding investigation”into conditions in the bulk power markets to determine the reasonsfor the wild price volatility and reliability problems that havegripped the market during the past couple of summers.

Northwest Pipeline put shippers on notice last week that itplans to undertake a system enhancement program and will begintaking requests for a pipeline expansion project. The enhancementprogram, which will involve adding pipeline looping andcompression, is designed in part to resolve a supply displacementproblem stemming from an expiring contract.

Northwest Pipeline put shippers on notice last week that itplans to undertake a system enhancement program and will begintaking requests for a pipeline expansion project. The enhancementprogram, which will involve adding pipeline looping andcompression, is designed in part to resolve a supply displacementproblem stemming from an expiring contract.