Wholesale

Higher distillate prices resulting in less fuel switching is one driver boosting wholesale natural gas prices higher than might be expected, but another may be that the U.S. is no longer getting that extra slug of Canadian gas during extremely cold weather that it did in previous years, analyst Stephen Smith speculated.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday sent out surveys to approximately 300 natural gas and electric wholesale suppliers to glean information about the companies’ price-reporting practices and determine whether they are complying with the standards that were designed by the agency to thwart future abuses.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Friday sent out surveys to approximately 300 natural gas and electric wholesale suppliers to glean information about the companies’ price reporting practices and determine whether they are complying with the standards that were designed by the agency to thwart future abuses.

Noting that FERC’s proposed rule to bar manipulation of wholesale electric markets “may chill pro-competitive behavior,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has called on the federal energy agency to focus its sights on creating “structurally competitive markets” instead.

In response to a case forged in the extreme wholesale natural gas price volatility times of December 2000, the California Public Utilities Commission Thursday took the middle ground in applying its policy restricting the switching of large commercial/industry customers back and forth between non-core and core status. In the latter case, customers want utility protection when gas rates spike.

Noting that FERC’s proposed rule to bar manipulation of wholesale electric markets “may chill pro-competitive behavior,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has called on the federal energy agency to focus its sights on creating “structurally competitive markets” instead.

Citing continuing wholesale price increases, even in these summer months, Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. earlier this month filed a request to increase natural gas retail rates in four counties that its Avista Utilities serve in the southern end of Oregon. Avista said the influences of a national gas market were evident this year as eastern gas shortages and continuing low storage inventories for this time of year are influencing the prices it pays for gas in the West.

Standard and Poor’s Rating Service (S&P) on Thursday warned in a report titled “Risky Business: Selling Retail Electricity in the U.S.” that many retail marketers are in the same boat as wholesalers with significant market risk because of volatile prices and switching customers, operational challenges such as mass billing and collections, and weak credit.

As part of a broad North American search for ways to make western wholesale natural gas markets more competitive, Humboldt Bay in the northern end of California’s 1,000-mile coastline is the unlikely site of a proposed combination electric generating plant and liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal envisioned by San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp., a major national developer of gas-fired power plants.