While responsive to the operational requirements of the particular systems, several new pipeline services enable generators to react more promptly to spiking electric demand.
Michel Marcoux is a partner in Bruder, Gentile & Marcoux, L.L.P., a Washington, D.C., law firm engaged in natural gas and electric utility industry work. He can be reached at (202) 783-1350. Web site: www.brudergentile.com.
Ron Hrehor's and Don Sytsma's Feb. 15, 2002 vision in this magazine ("Gas Power Infrastructure: The Missing Link?") of natural gas industry potential to address electric industry problems, notes in passing that interstate pipelines are advancing more flexible services for generators, including services that now offer firm hourly transporta-tion.1 But, there is more to that story. Putting flesh on the gas-power vision, pipeline efforts to formulate services for generators, and FERC orders governing those efforts now assume a discernible shape. This is a reasonable time to take stock.
A Fuel with Electrifying Prospects
The ongoing Enron scandal and the 2000-2001 California electricity crisis are causing financing and regulatory uncertainty today for gas-fueled generation and other energy markets.2