News

Changes are coming to the big screen mid-August. California Gas Transmission is pleased to announce upcoming changes to our nomination system, INSIDEtracc.

Bumping

Although regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E will join the ranks of FERC-regulated pipelines currently utilizing bumping. As agreed upon in Pacific Gas and Electric Company's 2004 Gas Transmission and Storage Rate case (Decision #03-12-061, effective January 1, 2004), CGT agreed to implement bumping as part of the gas scheduling process. As-available nominations will be bumped, if necessary, to allow room for firm nominations to flow.

We are completing the necessary system changes and will be implementing bumping changes as part of the upcoming improvements to INSIDEtracc.

How it Works

When the total requested nominated volume is greater than the available capacity at an interconnect or on a transportation path, nominations will be bumped. As-available nominations will be bumped by price to allow firm gas to flow, starting in the nomination cycle prior to the current cycle, and working back through each subsequent cycle.

After as-available bumping has taken place, if nominated firm gas cannot flow due to system constraints at an interconnect or on a path, firm nominations will then be bumped pro rata, starting in the nomination cycle prior to the current cycle, and working back through each subsequent cycle.

Bumping will occur in the Evening and Intraday 1 nomination cycles, and can affect nominations back to the Timely cycle. The affected nomination will be at the point where transportation occurs on the PG&E system (i.e., those nominations that require a transportation ID number). When this happens, the buyer and seller for the affected nomination will both see a new cut code on their 100 Reports next to the nomination, either BMP-01 or BMP-02, designating whether the cut is at the interconnect point or on the path.

Once nominations have been processed, the CGT Gas Scheduling group will unlock the 100 Report. Simultaneously, for those customers whose nominations have been bumped, an e-mail will be sent to the Operating Communications and Scheduling role contacts listed in INSIDEtracc. Please contact a CGT Account Services Representative if you would like to verify your company personnel listed in these roles.

Points to Remember

• All as-available nominations will be bumped first, within cycles, by price
• As-available nominations will not bump firm nominations
• Firm nominations will be bumped within cycles, pro rata, after as-available nominations have been bumped

Replacement Nominations

As a result of customer feedback, CGT's INSIDEtracc system is being modified to handle replacement nominations. Today's system of incremental nominations will be a thing of the past.

Customers will enter a total nominated volume they'd like to receive for the day into the desired nomination cycle. That total volume will continue to roll from nomination cycle to nomination cycle.

Example

As part of implementing bumping and replacement nominations, changes will be made to INSIDEtracc nomination screens. Watch Pipe Ranger for upcoming information on these new screens.

Pool and Interconnect Names

Along with other INSIDEtracc improvements, interconnect names and pool designations will change.

While CGT's naming convention of linking interconnect names to the pipeline associated with that interconnect was appropriate in its time, confusion has occurred where some pipelines at interconnects have changed names. Therefore, CGT has matched interconnect names and pool designations geographically instead of by pipeline. Receipt and delivery point location names will change to be consistent with the new interconnect and pool changes.

The pool naming convention remains the same:

• First two letters: geographical location
• Next four numbers: customer code
• Last letter(s): type of pool

The following chart shows a comparison of the old and new naming conventions:

Reports

A new "Daily Nomination Summary (110 Report)" will be included with these mid-August improvements. This summary report will show a snapshot of the status of all nominations, in delivered volumes.

For more detail on nominations, customers should continue to use the 100 Report, which will be renamed the "Daily Nomination Details (100 Report)." Additional cosmetic changes have been made to the report, as well as the ability to export report information to Excel.

Additional information regarding screen changes will be covered in INSIDEtracc training sessions and an upcoming Pipe Ranger article. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact a CGT Gas Scheduling Group representative at 1.800.343.4743.