N.Y. PSC Approves Changes in Pricing for Central Hudson Winter Bundled Sales Service

The New York PSC has approved a revision in the commodity price points and weightings used to price Winter Bundled Sales (WBS) Service at Central Hudson Gas & Electric (10-G-0541).

The revisions reflect recent changes to pipeline capacity that Central Hudson has under contract and which are utilized to provide WBS Service. The revisions, "will result in a more accurate reflection of the asset portfolio actually used by Central Hudson to provide WBS Services," PSC Staff said.

WBS is used as a virtual storage program, and Central Hudson's retail access program requires retail suppliers to elect either WBS Service or Balancing Service to meet differences between the amount of gas that they deliver to the company and their customer's gas requirements for each month during the Winter Period (November through March).

The WBS Service provides retail suppliers the opportunity to purchase storage gas at the company's city gate during the Winter Period. Under the WBS option, a retail supplier purchases WBS gas during the period November through March at a rate consisting of a commodity charge and all associated storage and firm transportation charges.

Prior to the changes, the commodity prices for WBS were based on a "blended index" for the Canadian capacity/supply that Central Hudson has under contract using TransCanada Pipelines (TCPL) from both Dawn, Ontario and Alberta, AECO receipt points.

For the period April 2011 to October 2011, Central Hudson will have a new contract for pipeline capacity with Dominion Transmission Inc. - Appalachia. After 2011, Central Hudson will no longer be under contract with TCPL Alberta, AECO.

The revised WBS commodity price points and weightings reflect these known capacity changes.