weather

With summer and the expectation of hotter weather only days away, California regulators last week took several tiny steps aimed at squeezing more megawatts into the supply mix this summer and shoring up financially troubled Southern California Edison Co., the utility hovering on the edge of bankruptcy despite all the good news being spread around by state officials this week.

Due to warmer weather in its market area and lower overall linepack, Florida Gas Transmission issued Thursday an Overage Alert Day notice with 15% tolerance for negative imbalances.

With the onset of warming weather and rolling blackouts, California officials and energy industry stakeholders are trying to find more common ground, but the much-needed legislative and financial solutions failed to materialize last week. The governor, generators and legislators are expected to get together this week to seek a way to salvage proposed solutions, and state regulators will decide how to spread already-approved electricity retail rate increases.

Noting the mild temperatures across the country, favorable arbitrage spreads and “ambitious distributor refills,” the industry continues to “inject a significant amount of natural gas into storage,” said UBS Warburg analyst Ronald Barone last week in his weekly research note. Even though national supplies now stand at 958 Bcf versus 1,117 Bcf a year ago, Barone said he expects to see the storage deficit drop and perhaps post a surplus by this summer.

Noting the mild temperatures across the country, favorable arbitrage spreads and “ambitious distributor refills,” the industry continues to “inject a significant amount of natural gas into storage,” said UBS Warburg analyst Ronald Barone last week in his weekly research note. Even though national supplies now stand at 958 Bcf versus 1,117 Bcf a year ago, Barone said he expects to see the storage deficit drop and perhaps post a surplus by this summer.

Due to mild weather in its market area and high linepack, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Underage Alert Day notice Tuesday with 10% tolerance for positive daily imbalances.

Citing mild market area weather and high linepack, Florida Gas Transmission declared an Underage Alert Day Tuesday with 10% tolerance for positive daily imbalances. FGT also said it will be performing unplanned maintenance today and Thursday at an off-system interconnect with Tennessee at Carnes, MS. Interconnect volumes are limited to 30 MMcf/d during the work.

Monday’s cold weather-induced price rally proved to be short-lived, and few if any traders expect it to be revived anytime soon. Most eastern points fell between a nickel and 15 cents Tuesday, while declines tended to be larger in the Rockies/San Juan and California markets. Due to its frigid New England service area, Algonquin quotes essentially were flat.

While the East looked around and, seeing nearly all appreciable weather load fading fast, decided to sit tight or retreat a bit price-wise Wednesday, most western points were soaring in a frenzy of buying. California and Rockies pipes saw spikes that often hit triple digits. Only flatness in the Pacific Northwest and at a couple of Permian Basin points, along with a downturn for intra-Alberta numbers, belied the overall western strength.