SoCalGas expands to serve power producers. Seeking to help meet the seemingly insatiable demand for natural gas by power producers in California who want to turn gas into more valuable electricity which the state government seems willing to buy at any price, SoCalGas recently said it planned to increase customer access to supplies by increasing its intrastate gas transmission capacity and improving storage. To boost capacity, SoCal said it was increasing horsepower at three delivery stations on its intrastate pipeline system, boosting daily delivery capacity by 175 MMcf. The utility said the increased capacity would be enough gas to power 1,200 MW of new electric generation. Apparently the sky is the limit on what power producers are willing to pay for gas in order to have power available to sell into the unregulated wholesale market in California.
Regulators keep gas price frozen in Michigan.
Customers would be well advised to be prepared for a price increase next year. NUI completes acquisition of Virginia Gas. NUI, Bedminster, New Jersey, says it sees opportunities for its energy supply, wholesale trading and portfolio management businesses in the Commonwealth of Virginia now that it has acquired all the common stock of Virginia Natural Gas Co., Abingdon, Virginia. NUI operates gas utilities serving about 380,000 customers in six states along the U.S. eastern seaboard. NUI also operates non-regulated marketing and trading subsidiaries and several other business lines.