In AEP's recent 10Q, there is the statement "The above chart does not reflect progress of midstream gas operations..." in the year 2000 readiness disclosure section. What does this mean? Is this a substantial amount of work and does it affect service?

-- Debbie Keller (keller@uakron.edu), May 21, 1999

Answers

I haven't seen AEP's statement yet to see what context they are using, but generally in the industry, midstream gas operations refers to the distribution system from the treatment facilities to the front gate of the local distribution system. In other words, the cross- country pipeline system.

And yes, this is a highly complex system relying on SCADA and embedded chips for reliable and safe delivery of natural gas. There are several major choke points where a failure could affect customers even thousands of miles away.

-- Doug (douglasjohnson@prodigy.net), May 21, 1999.

Those "local failures" can be local utility failures too - power, telephone, services (cooling water for the diesels and compressors, fuel control - most of these use the gas they pump as fuel itself, oil, repair, monitoring, etc.)

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), May 21, 1999.