Generation, Natural Gas

MidAmerican official says gas grid up to the task of fueling more generation

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MidAmerican official says gas grid up to the task of fueling more generation
Des Moines, Iowa (Platts)
The US natural gas pipeline industry should be able to meet the growing fuel demands of the expanding gas-fired generation fleet without making wholesale changes to their business structure, the head of MidAmerican Energy Pipeline Group said Monday.

“I sense a lot of apprehension” from the electric industry about whether the pipeline industry will be able to meet all of the plans for gas-fired electric generation, said Mark Hewett, MidAmerican Energy Pipeline Group president and CEO, and president of Northern Natural Gas. “I really don’t see that it’s much of an issue or much of a problem,” he told a Mid-America Regulatory Conference in Des Moines, Iowa. “We don’t see any…

Electricity

NERC: Texas, California, New England Could Face Reliability Issues This Summer

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NERC: Texas, California, New England Could Face Reliability Issues This Summer
POWERnews
Planning reserve margins in California and Texas will be “tight” this summer, and New England generators could face uncertain supplies of liquefied natural gas (LNG), the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s (NERC’s) newly released 2012 Summer Reliability Assessment finds.

The 195-page assessment forecasts that between June 1 and Sept. 30, a majority of NERC’s assessment areas will have sufficient resources to meet summer peak demands. However, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid operator that serves about 85% of Texas, shows planning reserve margins of 13.5%, below NERC’s reference margin level of 13.75%. And in California, planning reserve…