[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 163 (Wednesday, August 22, 2012)]
[Notices]
[Pages 50684-50686]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-20596]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

[Docket No. AD12-12-000]


 Coordination Between Natural Gas and Electricity Markets; 
Supplemental Notice of Technical Conference

    As announced in the Notices issued on July 5, 2012 \1\ and July 17, 
2012,\2\ the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) staff 
will hold a technical conference on Thursday, August 23, 2012, from 
9:00 a.m. to approximately 4:45 p.m. local time to discuss gas-electric 
coordination issues in the Southeast region.\3\ The agenda and list of 
roundtable participants for this conference is attached. This 
conference is free of charge and open to the public. Commission members 
may participate in the conference.
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    \1\ Coordination between Natural Gas and Electricity Markets, 
Docket No. AD12-12-000 (July 5, 2012) (Notice of Technical 
Conferences) (http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?fileID=13023450); 77 Fed. Reg. 41184 (July 12, 2012) 
(http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2012-07-12/pdf/2012-16997.pdf).
    \2\ Coordination between Natural Gas and Electricity Markets, 
Docket No. AD12-12-000 (July 17, 2012) (Supplemental Notice of 
Technical Conferences) (http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/common/opennat.asp?fileID=13029403).
    \3\ As indicated in the July 5, 2012 notice, for purposes of 
this technical conference, the Southeast region includes Southern 
Company, Duke and Progress Energy, TVA, and other areas south of PJM 
Interconnection, L.L.C. and East of Southwest Power Pool, Inc. and 
Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
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    The Southeast region technical conference will be held at the 
following venue: Commission Headquarters, 888 First Street NE., 
Washington, DC 20426.
    If you have not already done so, those who plan to attend the 
Southeast region technical conference are strongly encouraged to 
complete the registration form located at: www.ferc.gov/whats-new/registration/nat-gas-elec-mkts-form.asp. There is no deadline to 
register to attend the conference. The dress code for the conference 
will be business casual. The agenda and roundtable participants for the 
remaining technical conferences will be issued in supplemental notices 
at later dates.
    The Southeast region technical conference will not be transcribed. 
However, there will be a free webcast of the conference. The webcast 
will allow persons to listen to the Southeast region technical 
conference, but not participate. Anyone with Internet access who 
desires to listen to the Southeast region conference can do so by 
navigating to www.ferc.gov's Calendar of Events and locating the 
Southeast region technical conference in the Calendar. The Southeast 
region technical conference will contain a link to its webcast. The 
Capitol Connection provides technical support for the webcast and 
offers the option of listening to the meeting via phone-bridge for a 
fee. If you have any questions, visit www.CapitolConnection.org or call 
703-993-3100.\4\
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    \4\ The webcast will continue to be available on the Calendar of 
Events on the Commission's Web site www.ferc.gov for three months 
after the conference.
_____________________________________-

    Information on this and the other regional technical conferences 
will also be posted on the Web site www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/electric-coord.asp, as well as the Calendar of Events on the 
Commission's Web site www.ferc.gov. Changes to the agenda or list of 
roundtable participants for the Southeast region technical conference, 
if any, will be posted on the Web site www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/electric-coord.asp prior to the conference.
    Commission conferences are accessible under section 508 of the 
Rehabilitation Act of 1973. For accessibility accommodations, please 
send an email to [email protected] or call toll free 1-866-208-
3372 (voice) or 202-208-1659 (TTY), or send a FAX to 202-208-2106 with 
the required accommodations.
    For more information about this and the other regional technical 
conferences, please contact:

Pamela Silberstein, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First 
Street NE., Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8938, 
[email protected].
Sarah McKinley, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street 
NE., Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8004, [email protected].

    Dated: August 15, 2012.
Kimberly D. Bose,
Secretary.
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TN22AU12.025

Coordination Between Natural Gas and Electricity Markets

Docket No. AD12-12-000
Southeast Region- August 23, 2012
FERC Headquarters, Washington, DC

Agenda

9:00-9:15 Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:15-9:45 Regional Energy Infrastructure Presentation (FERC staff)
9:45-11:45 First Roundtable Discussion: Gas-Electric Coordination in 
the Southeast

    There has been significant growth in the Southeast region's use of 
gas as fuel for electricity generation. By some accounts, the Southeast 
now leads the country both in the total volume of electric generation 
gas demand, and as a percentage of total US gas burn.\5\ Given this 
rapid increase in gas demand for electricity generation, the region's 
electric and gas entities may face future operational challenges 
involving coincident peaks, the flexibility of pipeline services, and 
infrastructure adequacy.
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    \5\ See, e.g., Energy Information Administration, Electricity 
Monthly Update, July 26, 2012, http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/update/resource_use.cfm.
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    Roundtable participants are encouraged to be prepared to respond to 
the following:
    1. How do Southeastern electric utilities' scheduling and 
commitment practices align with the NAESB standard natural gas pipeline 
business practices? How do the region's utilities and generators manage 
the risks associated with differences in the daily practices from one 
industry to the next?
    2. Given the significant percentage of gas demand for industrial 
use in this region, as well as the growth in electric generation gas 
demand, how is the adequacy of gas infrastructure evaluated? Are there 
ways the region can better deploy existing capacity to meet demand 
growth?
    3. What types of services offered by natural gas pipelines and 
storage

[[Page 50685]]

providers in the Southeast best meet the needs of gas-fired generators 
in the region? Would generators in the region like to see additional 
flexibility in pipeline services, and if so, what kind? Do other 
pipeline shippers need additional flexibility in pipeline services, and 
if so, what kind? What would gas pipelines and storage providers need 
to be able to provide such additional flexibility?
    4. How are pipelines managing the growth in electric generation 
demand from an operational standpoint? Is there a need for different 
pipeline operational management tools, such as a different imbalance 
management mechanism or penalty structure, for gas-fired generation as 
opposed to other pipeline shippers?
    5. Do pipelines in this region offer additional nomination 
opportunities beyond the four NAESB nomination cycles? If so, are such 
offerings available to both firm and interruptible shippers? What are 
the costs of providing additional nomination opportunities? Are there 
impacts to natural gas end users?

11:45-1:15 Break
1:15-2:30 Second Roundtable Discussion: Communications/Coordination/
Information-Sharing

    Several commenters suggest that communication and coordination 
issues may differ between the regions, and therefore are more 
appropriately addressed on a regional basis. Given the region's risk 
for severe weather, the increase in the use of gas to fuel electric 
generation in the Southeast, and the proximity of natural gas supplies, 
gas and electric entities in the Southeast may need to address 
communication and coordination issues that affect both real time and 
near-real time operations and outage planning for both gas and electric 
systems, as well as long term gas and electric planning and 
coordination.
    Roundtable participants are encouraged to be prepared to respond to 
the following:
    1. How is coordination and information-sharing regarding both 
emergency and planned outages handled by affected gas and electric 
entities? Are improvements needed? Please describe what kind of 
coordination and information is shared and with whom in preparation for 
extreme events that simultaneously and significantly affect both the 
gas and electric sectors. Are there any limitations on communication 
that seem unnecessarily restrictive? Should entities coordinate weather 
forecasts?
    2. What is the impact of electric system outages upon the gas 
system, and vice versa? Will the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty 
and Job Creation Act of 2011 impose new requirements upon inter-
industry communication and coordination? If so, how are the industries 
planning for those new requirements?
    3. Are there particular communication and coordination challenges 
associated with managing the expected increase in use of natural gas 
for electric generation? If so, are improvements needed and who should 
be responsible for implementing improvements?
    4. Given the extent to which gas-fired generation dominates the 
Florida generation portfolio, and also considering the high utilization 
factors of pipelines such as Florida Gas Transmission and Gulfstream 
especially during the summer months, how do the utilities in Florida 
manage communications and coordination, both day-to-day and during 
extreme events?

2:30-2:45 Break
2:45-4:15 Third Roundtable Discussion: Reliability

    The bulk electric system is typically planned, as required by the 
mandatory reliability standards, to meet projected customer demands and 
system performance criteria, even under single element contingency 
conditions. Interstate natural gas pipelines are planned and expanded 
to meet firm gas delivery contracts between the pipelines and one or 
more shippers. As noted, the Southeast will be experiencing a 
significantly increased reliance on natural gas generation in the 
coming years. This may serve to highlight concerns about the future 
reliability and interdependencies of the bulk electric system and the 
interstate natural gas pipeline system as the amount of natural gas-
fired generation increases.
    Roundtable participants are encouraged to be prepared to respond to 
the following:
    1. Has any entity in the Southeast region performed any kind of 
assessment regarding the region's natural gas pipeline capacity, taking 
into account present and future electric generation needs? If not, is 
such a study needed? If so, who would undertake it? Are additional, 
coordinated studies of the natural gas and electric systems needed to 
analyze forecasted resource mix and/or interdependency risks from 
curtailments or contingencies? Can this issue be addressed through 
existing transmission planning processes? If not, is a different 
process needed?
    2. A number of commenters in other regions referred to recent 
functional exercises that allowed participants from the natural gas and 
electric industries, as well as state regulators, to assess emergency 
response plans and provided a forum to discuss and implement 
improvements.\6\ Given its experience with hurricanes and other extreme 
weather events, are sufficient emergency coordination procedures in 
place in the Southeast? Does the growth in the use of gas for electric 
generation mean that more coordination or other advance preparations 
are needed, especially for extreme weather events?
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    \6\ See, e.g., Texas Pipeline Association March 30, 2012 
Comments at 2 (responding to Commissioner Moeller's February 3, 2012 
Request for Comments).
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    3. To what extent do pipelines in the Southeast region rely upon 
electric compression? Is this reliance likely to change in the future, 
and if so, how? What would be the impact, if any, of an electricity 
outage upon the pipeline's deliverability? Do pipelines study risk of 
loss of electricity? If so, how do the results of such study affect 
operational planning?

4:15-4:45 Closing

    Roundtable Participants:

Dave Ciarlone, Manager, Global Energy Services, Alcoa (on behalf of 
Process Gas Consumers)
Valerie Crockett, Senior Program Manager, Regulatory & Policy, TVA
Mark Evans, Vice President, North American Gas & Power, BG Group
Frank Ferazzi, Senior Vice President & General Manager, WGP East, 
Williams Gas Pipeline
Michael Frey, Vice President, Gas Supply & Operations, Municipal Gas 
Authority of Georgia (on behalf of APGA)
Paul Greenwood, Manager for Americas Gas Marketing, ExxonMobil Gas & 
Power Marketing (on behalf of Natural Gas Supply Association)
Laura Heckman, Director, Business Development, Kinder Morgan
Greg Henderson, President & CEO, Southeast Alabama Gas District
David Jewell, Senior Vice President, Gas Systems & Capacity Planning, 
CenterPoint Energy
Keith Maust, Manager Director-Gas Supply and Scheduling, Piedmont 
Natural Gas Company, Inc.
Michael McMahon, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Boardwalk 
Pipeline Partners, LP
Wayne Moore, Compliance Officer and Vice President, Southern Company
Carl Haga, Gas Services Director, Southern Company
John Moura, Associate Director, Reliability Assessment, NERC
Eric Senkowicz, Director of Operations, Florida Reliability 
Coordinating Council

[[Page 50686]]

Donald Sipe, PretiFlaherty (on behalf of American Forest and Paper 
Association)
Richard Smead, Director, Navigant Consulting, Inc. (on behalf of 
America's Natural Gas Alliance)
Andrew Soto, Senior Managing Counsel, American Gas Association

[FR Doc. 2012-20596 Filed 8-21-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-P