Utility

Xcel Energy Inc.’s Colorado combination utility on Tuesday filed with state regulators for approval to pursue a natural gas reserve program as one of a half-dozen initiatives under its “Our Energy Future” plan.

Hawaii leaders have set a goal to use 100% renewables by 2045, but liquefied natural gas (LNG) may be a viable and cost-saving supplement to the use of synthetic natural gas (SNG) by Hawaii Gas as a primary fuel in the interim, according to the results of an 18-month bidding process by the state’s only regulated gas utility.

State legislative committees in Oregon planned to discuss on Thursday putting into law a landmark agreement to phase out coal-fired generation between 2030 and 2035.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California have submitted testimony in its criminal case against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), alleging that shoddy recordkeeping contributed to a 2010 natural gas pipeline rupture and explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno, a suburb south of San Francisco.

Officials at Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) utility on Wednesday said pre-winter underground storage operations continue unhindered by the seven-week-old leaking storage well at its 86 Bcf capacity Aliso Canyon facility 40 miles north of Los Angeles (see Daily GPI,Nov. 12).

Questar Corp. has received approval from Utah and Wyoming regulators to include additional natural gas properties under a long-standing agreement that enables it to produce gas at cost-of-service for its utility customers in both states.

Positioning his company behind California’s clean energy push, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) CEO Anthony Earley said Wednesday that the combination utility will continue to focus its future growth on projects that support implementation of the statewide initiative.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) on Thursday released an operations audit of Philadelphia Gas Works — the nation’s largest municipally-owned gas utility — with recommendations it said could generate up to $10.5 million in savings for the underfunded company.

For large buyers of natural gas, these days “the living is easy” with plentiful supplies and sustained low prices, but the current environment also comes with operating challenges from externalities facing local gas and electric distribution companies, a panel of gas buyers said Wednesday at the final session of the LDC Gas Forum Rockies & the West in Los Angeles.