News

On August 15, 2000, Pacific Gas and Electric Company will implement Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with Pacific Gas and Electric Company Gas Transmission - Northwest (abbreviated in INSIDEtracc as "PGN"). Pacific Gas and Electric Company and PGN are currently conducting systems testing and final implementation is expected on August 15 for gas day August 16.

EDI implementation requires that all nomination information between interconnecting pipelines match perfectly. For this reason, Pacific Gas and Electric Company shippers must be aware of a few subtleties they may have previously ignored.

Transitioning to EDI

Shippers will have a one week "transition period" to become familiar with the procedures necessary for EDI implementation. From August 8 through August 14, Pacific Gas and Electric Company and PGN will schedule using EDI. However, Pacific Gas and Electric Company's Scheduling group and PGN's scheduling group will work together to review and confirm timely cycle nominations between the two pipelines. The pipelines will review evening and intraday nominations on a best efforts basis only.

If any nominations have been manually overwritten, Pacific Gas and Electric Company will notify the effected customers by telephone and advise them to correct any nominations still in place for future cycles or dates.

On August 15 for gas day August 16, Pacific Gas and Electric Company and PGN will cease manual verification of nominations involving PGN. Contact PGN scheduling personnel concerning any questions on nomination and confirmation procedures.

Implementation for Forward Haul Only

At this time, EDI implementation will occur only for forward haul transactions (receipts from PGN delivered to Pacific Gas and Electric Company). Backhauls or deliveries to PGN will use the current manual process until Pacific Gas and Electric Company implements EDI for downstream deliveries. This is expected in mid-2001.

How to Ensure Nominations Match

The following actions and information will help ensure that nominations match under the new EDI protocols.

Monitor and Match

Shippers should carefully monitor information from both pipelines to ensure that nominations on INSIDEtracc and PGN's system match.

DUNS Numbers

Although Pacific Gas and Electric Company shippers do not manually enter DUNS numbers on nominations in INSIDEtracc, INSIDEtracc will pass the DUNS numbers to PGN's system during the EDI process. PGN's system will not, however, require a match on DUNS numbers. Shippers may still wish to verify that their DUNS number in INSIDEtracc is correct. Pacific Gas and Electric Company shippers may retrieve their own DUNS number directly from INSIDEtracc by selecting Navigate, Contracts, Customer. Once in the Customer screen, select Search and then Retrieve from the buttons at the top of the screen.

To find out the DUNS number of a downstream nominating partner, that shipper must be contacted directly. Pacific Gas and Electric Company representatives cannot make this information public.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company does not require its end-use customers to obtain DUNS numbers. Therefore, for nominations going directly from a TSA to an end-use premise, INSIDEtracc automatically uses a fictitious DUNS number of "999999999." Nominations directly to a Pacific Gas and Electric Company end-use premise must include a matching "999999999" DUNS number in PGN's system. If not, the nominations will not be matched and will be cut.

Package IDs

Shippers may continue to nominate using package IDs, an optional field in INSIDEtracc. However pipeline-to-pipeline transactions between Pacific Gas and Electric Company and PGN are not performed at the package ID level. For this reason, package IDs are not one of the elements matched by the EDI process.

INSIDEtracc aggregates multiple nominations by source and destination contract and then transmits this single aggregated volume to PGN's system. Shippers must ensure that the volume nominated from a TSA to a downstream contract on PGN's system matches the aggregated total from INSIDEtracc. If the volumes do not match, the 'lesser of' rule will apply.

Questions

If you have any questions about EDI implementation, please contact your California Gas Transmission CGT Account Services Representative or the Gas Scheduling Hotline.