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New cogeneration plants are on the move in California, but theymay not be built fast enough to keep up with growing demand.

The overall cash market drifted lower Friday, with quotesranging from essentially flat into Northwest for both domestic andCanadian gas to nearly 15 cents lower at the PG&E citygate. Thegeneral softness primarily was a function of the usual weekenddropoff in gas load, sources said.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a high-inventory OFO,effective Saturday, with 5% tolerance for positive dailyimbalances. The utility projected above-target linepack throughtoday. However, fellow California distributor SoCal Gas did nothave an OFO-like Overnominations Day in place for Saturday.

A lightning strike Monday night at PG&E GasTransmission-Northwest’s Station 13 (Chemult, OR) caused ashortfall in receipts, but PG&E GT-NW said it worked with NOVAto correct respective linepacks under an Operational BalancingAgreement and thus did not expect any impact on Tuesday’s scheduledvolumes. However, it was unable to schedule any increased receiptsat Kingsgate or additional deliveries through Station 13 Tuesday.

Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania filed its restructuring plan withthe Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission Monday in an effort toexpand its supplier choice program statewide. As part of theNatural Gas Choice and Competition Act passed by the PennsylvaniaGeneral Assembly June 17, each gas utility is required to submit arestructuring plan to the PUC by Nov. 1.

Cash prices turned in mixed results Wednesday, with easternpoints mostly eking out small gains while the West tended to beflat to off as much as 3 cents in the Rockies and at the two mainNorthern California price points.

AmerenCIPS, a subsidiary of Ameren Corp., filed with theIllinois Commerce Commission (ICC) a notice that it intends totransfer AmerenCIPS’ Illinois generating facilities and relatedpersonnel to a new non-regulated subsidiary. Ameren is a registeredholding company under the Public Utility Holding Company Act of1935 (PUHCA) and is the parent of the utility operatingsubsidiaries, AmerenCIPS and AmerenUE.

Leviathan Gas Pipeline Partners LP contracted with MODECInternational LLC for construction of the hull for a floatingplatform to be used as part of its Sunday Silence field developmentproject in Gulf of Mexico Ewing Bank Blocks 958, 959, 1002 and 1003in 1,500 feet of water. MODEC International, which is owned by FMCCorp. and Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, was selected byLeviathan after reviewing four competitive bids.

Yankee Gas Services Co. inaugurated its new customer and billingservice this week, completing a process begun in collaboration withIBM two years ago. Yankee said the system will enhance customerservice, improve efficiency and is Y2K ready. The company would notrelease the cost of the new system.