The reforms are aimed to address natural gas and electric scheduling concerns resulting from the increase in gas-fired generation, to provide greater flexibility to industry participants, and to better ensure reliable and efficient operation of the electric and interstate gas pipeline systems.
On April 16, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (the Commission) issued Order No. 809, revising its regulations relating to scheduling transportation service on interstate natural gas pipelines.[1] Order No. 809 is the latest of the Commission’s efforts over the last three years to address certain coordination issues with the scheduling practices of the wholesale natural gas and electric industries that arise from electric generators’ increased reliance on natural gas.
The Final Rule adopts portions of the Commission’s March 20, 2014 Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) in which the Commission proposed the following three changes to the nationwide natural gas scheduling practices: (1) moving the start of the natural gas operating day from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. central time to better align with the electric operating day, (2) moving the start of the first gas nomination cycle for day-ahead pipeline scheduling from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. central time (Timely Nomination Cycle), and (3) modifying the intraday nomination timeline to provide additional intraday nomination cycles. Following the NOPR’s issuance, the Commission provided the electric and natural gas industries with six months to reach consensus on the NOPR proposals through the North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB).