β Scribed by Korachiwala, B. Z.
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Today, because of various federal initiatives including, but certainly not limited to, FERC Orders 380,436,451, and 500, the gas industry is structured in a matrix relationship between the players. While the term "local distribution company" is a term that has been with us for a long time and will no doubt continue for years to come, it has lost its usefulness as a descriptor. No longer are the affairs of the LDC "local" in scope and no longer is its responsibility limited to "distribution." The local gas utility has become, in essence, a natural gas company, coordinating multiple supplysourcestothebenefititof itscustomers. Additionally, while the term "natural gas company"has a specific meaning under the Natural Gas Act, it would appear that in this new environment producers, pipelines, andLDCs are recognizing that each has to become more knowledgeable about the other. As such, the new LDC must think like a producer, a marketerbroker, and a pipeline as well as a traditional LDC.
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
Last month this column looked at two parts of the gas supply puzzle: the problem pipelines face in maintaining a merchant gas supply for what has become mostly a swing load and some of the issues involved in pricing firm supplies. The connecting link was uncertainty about secure long-term gas supply