Nat Gas News – October 20, 2017

Nat Gas News – October 20, 2017

Widespread Natural Gas Outage Hits Monterey County

Monterey County Weekly reports: PG&E started getting calls at 7:17am from residents in Salinas, Castroville, Pacific Grove, Monterey, Pebble Beach, Carmel and Seaside, reporting they were seeingno gas flames in their stoves, heaters and water heaters. By 1pm, the company received a total of 311 calls from customers. That number jumped to 426 by 4pm. PG&E activated its Gas Emergency Operations Center, as well as a local emergency operations center in Salinas, and crews fanned out to perform pressure and safety checks. The cause of the outage, and how many gas customers are affected, is unknown, says spokesperson Mayra Tostado. There is no current estimate when all service will be restored. In the meantime, PG&E officials say it’s important, for safety reasons, that people do not attempt to relight pilot lights themselves.

Report Claims Connecticut Natural Gas Utilities Manipulated Pipeline Capacity to Drive Up Prices

County Times reports: A new report released by the MIT contends the natural gas utilities of two Connecticut-based companies manipulated space on transmission lines, driving up the price of the fuel as well as the cost of electricity in New England. The 74-page report estimates the alleged actions of Eversource Energy and Avangrid increased average natural gas prices by 38 percent and the cost of electricity by 20 percent. As a result, the report’s authors said New England consumers paid $3.6 billion more for the electricity than they should have over the past three years. Officials with both companies strongly denied the claims made by the report. Mitch Gross, an Eversource spokesman, called the report “a complete fabrication.”