American Gas - April 2013 - (Page 12)

digest Continued from page 10 the cost of pipeline replacements and relocations since June 2012. The missouri Public service commission approved a surcharge increase from $0.49 last year, to pay for investments made between October 2011 and may 2012. eOn se, Germany’s largest utility, is planning to open a power and natural-gas trading operation in Chicago. The company has seen a decline in trading in activity in europe, and “for energy trading, north America has become more important over the past 12 months because energy-intensive industry is seeing a renaissance” due to lower gas prices, one executive told Bloomberg news. The Kentucky town of somerset, which runs its own natural gas pipeline, recently gained state approval for a pilot program that will offer training in natural gas technology to area high school juniors and seniors. The program will enable students to “get great jobs,” said mayor eddie Girdler—and presumably help ensure that the city has the gas-related technical skills it needs in the future. certain microbes can corrode pipe and sour gas, a particular problem in shale-gas production. now, Gas Technology institute and spyglass Biosecurity inc. are developing a portable, automated water lab to test for the microbes’ presence. The solution combines GTi’s DnA-based testing technology with spyglass Biosecurity’s mobilelab platform. The result is a highly accurate test that can be used in the field for near-real-time results, GTi says. The solution should be available in 18 to 24 months. 12 AmericAn GAs april 2013 nology like that used in coal plants with wellestablished natural gas-fired power plant technology. (Summit has developed or co-developed more than 7,800MW of natural-gas generation projects.) With this approach, a typical gas-fired power plant producing 250MW of net electric power—enough to serve some 250,000 homes— could capture up to 750,000 tons of CO2 a year, the companies say. Once captured, the CO2 can be sequestered in underground geologic formations, such as old gas fields. In fact, there are many potential plant locations in the U.S. where the CO2 could be injected into depleting oil fields for enhanced oil recovery, the companies say. In such cases, any CO2 that makes its way to the surface with the oil can be compressed, re-injected, and trapped underground. The end result: increases in available oil reserves, with reduced amounts of CO2 going into the atmosphere. “In the U.S. and abroad, the electric power sector is making a ‘dash for gas,’” said Hodel. “Competitively priced electric power is, in the end, a necessity. But so is clean and environmentally acceptable electric power. We believe we can and will be able to achieve both.” —P.H. need to know You Better Shop Around Pennsylvania makes gas supplier comparisons easier for customers t he Pennsylvania Utilities Commission recently unveiled an online tool to help consumers shop around for their natural gas supplier. Most states with deregulated natural gas markets offer consumers a way to search online for the names and contact information of natural gas suppliers operating in their area. But Pennsylvania’s PAGasSwitch takes it a step further by listing each supplier’s specific rates and terms, such as whether rates are fixed or variable. The PAGasSwitch tool is modeled after the commission’s PAPowerSwitch tool, Denise McCracken, PUC deputy press secretary, told WIth PAGasSwitch, comparison shopping is just a click away. Competition varies in different parts of the state. American Gas. PAPowerSwitch was launched after the state’s electricity rate caps were lifted in 2010 and interest in shopping for electric suppliers increased dramatically. By comparison, natural gas supplier switching has not been as popular. About 35 percent of electricity customers have signed up with alternative suppliers, while just 12 percent of natural gas consumers have. PAGasSwitch is part of an effort to encourage more natural gas consumers to shop around, McCracken says. Natural gas shopping was more common around 2005, when natural gas prices were higher, says Tanya McCloskey, the state’s acting consumer advocate. It can also be more difficult for consumers to determine which natural gas offer is best because gas rates tend to fluctuate more than electric rates, McCloskey told American Gas. “You can say one offer is better than another today,” McCloskey said. “But it’s hard to say with certainty that it will be a better deal three months from now.” There’s also not as much differentiation among natural gas suppliers as among electricity suppliers. On PAPowerSwitch, for example, several suppliers offer consumers the option of buying electricity generated solely from renewable energy sources. Natural gas suppliers compete mostly on price. The amount of competition varies in different parts of the state. Customers of Philadelphia Gas Works have no alternative natural gas suppliers, while PECO Gas customers have more than a dozen. UGI Penn customers have two. —J.P.T.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Gas - April 2013

American Gas - April 2013
Contents
President's Message
Subject Index
LNG Sports Car: Racing Toward Acceptance
Digest
Issues
Updates
Need to Know
By the Numbers
People and Places
Water, Water Anywhere
Asia
State House
State House
Elm Street
LNG: Riding the Wave
Beyond the Headlines
Profile
Crisis Management
Jobs
Buyer's Guide: Mapping and GIS
Marketplace
Headway

American Gas - April 2013