West Virginia storage field can keep more injected gas

US regulators allowed a natural gas storage facility in West Virginia to increase the amount of supply it retained from customers starting on 1 May, over the objections of some clients.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is permitting Hardy Gas Storage, a 12 Bcf facility operated by TC Energy, to boost its retainage rate by 2.5 percentage points to 3.1pc to compensate for lost and unaccounted for gas and for operational purposes.

Hardy said it had been under-collecting customer gas in 2019 after over-collecting in 2018. Retainage rates are frequently recalculated and submitted to FERC for approval.

While the storage facility was under-collecting, customers injected more gas than anticipated, resulting in 61,000 mmBtu being physically refunded by Hardy to customers in the 12 months ending in April.

Exelon, on behalf of Baltimore Gas & Electric, said Hardy did not demonstrate the rate increase was just and reasonable. The utility holding company asked FERC to convene a technical conference on the case.

Washington Gas Light said Hardy failed to include the results of a field measurement review in its rate increase request.

FERC found on 1 May that Hardy's explanation and level of detail in its rate increase filing were adequate and denied the request for a technical conference.

By David Givens

source: Argus Media