NYISO Forms Working Group on Electric and Gas Coordination

RENSSELAER, NY (01/18/2012)(readMedia)-- In an effort to improve coordination between its market participants, natural gas utilities, pipelines and other key industry participants, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) today announced the formation of an Electric-Gas Coordination Working Group. As part of the NYISO's shared governance structure, the new working group will report to both the Operating and Business Issues Committees.

"It is increasingly clear that natural gas will play a critical role in our energy future as a growing source of fuel for power generation," said NYISO President and CEO Stephen G. Whitley. "Emerging environmental regulations and the expansion of the supply of natural gas around the country is expected to cause dramatic changes in both the natural gas and electricity industries. Given these developments, effective coordination and communication between the gas and electric industries will become an increasingly important public policy and system reliability issue for regulators, industry stakeholders and consumers. I am pleased to announce the formation of this working group to address these challenges."

The working group will seek to develop a better understanding of the current relationships among participants in the electric and natural gas industries and develop proposals to improve coordination among interstate gas pipeline companies, gas pipeline shippers, electric system operators, electric generators, local gas distribution companies and state and federal regulatory agencies. In addition, the group will work to identify and resolve issues associated with outages, upgrades, scheduling and planning for the delivery of natural gas, with particular focus on the impact on supplies to electric generation facilities.

Brad Kranz, director of Regulatory and Market Affairs for NRG Power Marketing in New York, will serve as chair of the new working group. According to Kranz, "We'll work to ensure that stakeholders in the natural gas and electric industries share information regularly so that coordination can be meaningful. This is especially important because having a common view can make planning and operations more effective for two systems that are increasingly interdependent."

Participation in the working group will be open to all NYISO stakeholders. Representatives from the New York State Department of Public Service Gas Division will participate, and gas producers, gas suppliers, interstate pipelines, pipeline shippers and gas distribution companies in New York also will be encouraged to actively participate.