Any combination of core customer gas accounts (commercial and/or residential customers) can be aggregated into a Core Transport Group and qualify for core gas aggregation service.
Customer Participation
All 3.5 million core customers, with a total load of almost 300,000,000 Dth/year, are eligible. There is no maximum amount of load or number of customers who can participate in the program.
Aggregators must have a group of customers whose load totals at least 120,000 therms/year
Supply Pricing
Pacific Gas and Electric Company's pricing for its fully-bundled core service is recalculated each month based on current market conditions. Utility supply includes intrastate transmission costs as well as a $0.024/Dth brokerage fee and shrinkage. These supply costs are subtracted from the customer's otherwise applicable rate and are subject to an aggregator's competitive pricing.
Interstate and Intrastate Capacity
Each month aggregators have the opportunity to accept a pro rata share of the core's reserved transmission capacities on the Redwood and Baja paths (intrastate) and on Gas Transmission Northwest, El Paso Natural Gas and Transwestern (interstate) pipelines. Aggregators pay the same rates as Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Core Procurement Department.
Storage
Aggregators are offered a proportional share of Pacific Gas and Electric Company's core storage reservation monthly. As an alternative to accepting this storage from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, aggregators can provide proof that they hold other reliability resources (third-party storage or firm supply plus transport capacity). If storage is selected, aggregators have an obligation to fill and maintain required storage levels for reliability purposes.
Load Forecasting
A daily load forecasting service is provided to forecast daily aggregator volumes for nominations and is used for balancing and OFO/EFO compliance.
Nominations and Balancing
All core procurement groups, including utility procurement, follow the same rules for nominations and balancing, contained in G-BAL and gas Rule 21.
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