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: who's going to provide it and how much it will be worth. These are important considerations: distribution utilities have to make real-life buying decisions based on inconclusive and ambiguous bits of information, and regulators have to review their decisions the same way.
Obviously it would make the gas buyer's life easier to dispel these uncertainties. State regulators can help a little. FERC could m. The best help, of course, would be a really excellent crystal ball, but lacking that, there are still some things a utility can do. Where they haven't been undertaken, they should be. These steps will help a utility pinpoint its gas-purchase requirements, and the steps will also help assure the state regulator that the utility's purchasing practices are responsible. Where these steps are already in use, it is important to make sure the regulators know and understand how they are being used.
Know Your Customers
The first and pehaps most evident guideline is know your customers. Most utilities can spout an endless stream ofnumbers about peakday demand; daily, weekly, monthly,
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NATURAL G A W Y 1990