News
Review of NGSS and Recent FAQs about PG&E Storage Inventory
Thursday, January 19, 2023
As previously published, the 2019 Gas Transmission and Storage (GT&S) Rate Case Final Decision (D.) 19-09-025, issued on September 23, 2019, adopted the Natural Gas Storage Strategy (NGSS) that substantially restructured PG&E’s gas storage asset holdings Modified Firm Storage Rights - Effective April 1, 2020 | Pipeline (pge.com) and PG&E California Gas Transmission’s role in the market and operational functions. With the NGSS implementation, PG&E refocused its storage assets on system reliability.
Effective April 1, 2020, the PG&E firm storage services are shown in the table below:
| Storage Services | Injection Capacity (MMcf/d) | Inventory Capacity (bcf) | Withdrawal Capacity (MMcf/d) | |||
| Pre-NGSS | NGSS | Pre-NGSS | NGSS | Pre-NGSS | NGSS | |
| Core Firm Service* | 214 | 24 | 32 | 5 | 1210* | 307 |
| Inventory Management (Balancing) | 75 | 200 | 4 | 5 | 75 | 300 |
| Reserve Capacity (New) | 0 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 250 |
| Total | 289 | 249 | 36 | 11 | 1285 | 857 |
*PG&E Storage Withdrawal – January 15
As part of the NGSS, the Commission adopted PG&E’s reclassification of storage gas with the restructuring of PG&E’s gas storage asset holdings. PG&E reclassified 51 Bcf of PG&E-owned gas in storage from “working gas” to “base gas” in June 2021 as previously published in our news article. Overall, the current PG&E’s total gas inventory (working gas and base gas) in storage is about 124 Bcf.
Recently, there have been frequently asked questions about the 51 Bcf reclassified gas and PG&E’s storage operations:
Q. Does PG&E remain confident in its ability to provide reliable service this winter with the current PG&E Storage Inventory?
A. PG&E remains confident in its ability to provide service this winter period. PG&E has sufficient capacity to meet all firm core and balancing withdrawal obligations.
Q: Does the 51 Bcf of reclassified working gas still physically remain in PG&E’s storage fields?
A: Yes, the 51 Bcf remains in PG&E’s storage fields.
Q: If the base gas is still physically in the ground today, is it possible to withdraw it?
A. Yes, PG&E can withdraw it for operational purposes.
Q: How was the reclassified 51 Bcf used prior to the NGSS implementation?
A. Historically, majority of the gas was effectively used as base gas.
Q: Is there another source of information on the reclassification of the 51 Bcf?
A: Yes, as posted on the EIA: https://www.eia.gov/naturalgas/weekly/archivenew_ngwu/2021/06_24/
Please call Allen DeBrum at 415.706.3960 if you have questions.
