Fortnightly Magazine - November 15 1996

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has denied a request by a large noncore gas user for a waiver from eligibility limits imposed under a real-time pricing (RTP) experiment for gas transportation service approved by the CPUC in 1994 for San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E).

In an earlier ruling, the CPUC had restricted eligibility for the RTP experiment to a maximum of 10 customers per year, and had excluded electric generation and cogeneration customers from eligibility.

The Arizona Corporation Commission has extended its interim approval of the "Interstate Pipeline Capacity Sharing Program" implemented by Southwest Gas Corp.

The plan allows the gas utility to buy gas on the spot market from areas outside the area served by its traditional pipeline supplier, El Paso Natural Gas Co., and then transport the gas using pipeline capacity held by El Paso's other operating divisions in Nevada and California. The utility then credits the contributing pipeline division with one-half of the commodity-cost savings as compensation.

After reviewing an application by National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp., a local distribution company (LDC), to increase its purchased-gas cost rate, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has ordered the LDC to credit its sales customers with revenues collected from the transportation class as penalties for exceeding the current 10-percent limit on delivery imbalances. The PUC explained that costs for storage capacity due to overdeliveries by transportation users should be paid for by the class of customers responsible for such costs.

According to Standard & Poor's (S&P), the recently reauthorized federal Safe Drinking Water Act should have a favorable, long-term credit impact on investor-owned water utilities.

The new act requires the Environmental Protection Agency to give states the flexibility to modify testing and monitoring requirements based on a local water system's actual health-risk exposure. The act will also form a state revolving fund program, which will assist small water systems in complying with regulations and in conducting other drinking water projects.