by sylviamunson

LDCs Really Are Different!

My career has been heavily pipeline transportation focused – hence the book on pipeline transportation! In the last several years I have been working more with Local Distribution Companies (LDCs). While I worked in the pipeline world, I had always considered LDCs as a flavor of pipeline, just like intrastate pipelines, midstream, and interstates are pipelines.

Most LDC’s accept nominations! Doesn’t that make them a pipeline?  Not really!!

All natural-gas LDCs are pipelines in the literal sense. They are physical pipelines in the ground that are used to distribute natural gas. Some LDCs come closer to acting like an interstate or intrastate pipeline because of deregulation – in the instances where they are required to support transportation on behalf of others – such as marketers and shippers.

Acting as a pipeline is only one of the many services that LDCs perform. There are a host of others.

This is the first of a series of posts on LDCs. I thought I understood them. I now know that I have a lot to learn from them.

by sylviamunson

The Aging Workforce in Energy

Cycles in business

I’ve noticed an interesting trend among my peers lately. They are retiring! I’m not ready to retire, I’m still having a lot of fun. But, as companies change ownership and leadership, others get packages and encouraged to retire.

This could have a huge impact on our businesses!  So many companies that I work with send people just like me to the key decision-making meetings.  Where are the younger staff that are being groomed to take our positions? I was fortunate, 20-plus years ago, to be brought into the heart of some of the big changes that our industry was going through. At that time, the groups were made up of a mix of young business people like myself, who had good experience, though not deep, plus senior executives with deep knowledge. We learned so much from those senior executives, so that when they retired, we were equipped to step up and fill those shoes. But I don’t see most companies, today, sending those more junior staff into the decision-making processes along with their senior staff. They are still sending the senior staff but only sending one person and not growing someone to take that person’s place.

Yes, there is a cost involved to send two or more people instead of one. But there is a longer-term cost in only sending one person – the company isn’t growing a future generation to take the place of these senior staff. This isn’t true of all companies. I have worked with a few who bring the young people into the discussions with the senior staff, but there are still more seniors in the room than there are juniors.

And yes, I agree, that the younger staff of today are not the same breed that we were 20+ years ago. I think some of those people still exist, but they might be a little harder to find and a lot harder to retain. In recent years, I sent one of my employees to NAESB meetings, technical meetings for which he was well prepared. When he came back from the meeting he told me that if he had to go to those meetings again, he would quit!  What? I agree that it is difficult to work in a group such as NAESB because there are such long established procedures in place and so many long term relationships have been established. But don’t give up on the first try! Stick with it and make it work for you. Another associate, through NAESB, picked a successor to be trained up as a replacement upon her retirement. The person kept being a no-show at scheduled meetings and then claimed to not understand the process.

When I got started in NAESB, I already had 10+ years of industry experience and it was a tough organization to be a part of. Any organization that tries to build consensus on business processes among over 100 different companies is going to have some tough discussions! But the process works! During that time of getting started in NAESB, was also at the beginning of NAESB. To get all of the work done, many of us worked multiple 16+ hour days. Some of us even worked some 24-hour days. We did whatever it took to make the process successful. We need a new wave of this type of workforce in the gas industry. People who will work hard and are passionate about doing a good job and creating a better industry. We need to find those people, retain them, grow them, and prepare them for the future of our companies.

The question then becomes – what are these young people looking for in a company and how do we keep them? Is it benefits? Is it “work-life balance”? Benefits in companies are not the same as they were 20 years ago – and when I began in this industry I knew that these companies would grow ME as a person while growing me as an employee. Is this what recruits are looking for today? Or is it something different? We need to know what the current generation requires. We need to plan for succession.

by sylviamunson

Where do you Network? Is your net working for you?

It is important to network in natural gas.  Is your net working?

Why is it important? Three reasons immediately come to mind.

1 – To learn more about the job that you do. If you are a scheduler, accountant, contract analyst – it doesn’t matter.  Other people in your same position in other companies have something you can learn from.  They are dealing with the same counterparties. They are dealing with the same challenges.  Share the knowledge, share the problems and come up with smarter solutions!

2 – To learn more about the business you’re in.  There is much more to the business than your job.  Your job is a vertical position in the company – a slice of the business process.  Networking gives you the opportunity to learn what other positions do and how the holistic business process operates.  The more you know about the entire business process, the more effective you can be in your job.

3 – To become a part of the solution.  Things are always changing in the energy industry because of technology, market shifts, government regulations and IT solutions.  If you network, you can see changes that are coming and prepare for them rather than react to them.  This is when you become a part of the solution.

In Natural Gas, the FERC has asked NAESB to look at the options for scheduling gas on a more continuous basis.  NAESB will pick up that subject in early 2016 to explore the solutions.  By networking, we can get ahead of the curve, find out what each other is thinking in regard to possibilities in the business process and possibilities with technology.  We can know what the possible solutions are before we enter into those negotiations and we can know what the pain points are that we need to avoid.

Where do you network?  This week, I’ve been at LDC Forums – MidContinent in Chicago with OpenLink.  OpenLink brought me to the Forums to promote my new book – Contents Under Pressure. These folks are great at networking!  They set aside time specifically for networking and create networking venues. They hold multiple LDC Forums throughout the year in different locations in North America.  Where are the places that you network?  Share them so that they can grow and become more effective.  I’d love to get your input.

by sylviamunson

Terminology: What is an EBB?

I work with a lot of young people in the energy industry.  They are often in the technology end of the business, but they are just as likely to be from the business side of natural gas.  When the term ‘EBB’ comes up, I get the quizzical look and the imminent question…”What is an EBB”?  And it is a question that I don’t like answering because it is somewhat embarrassing.

EBB stands for Electronic Bulletin Board.  Back in the days before the Internet, there was EnerNet.  EnerNet was a company that formed out of the FERC Order 436 requirement that interstate pipelines make certain information publicly available for shippers and potential customers on their pipeline.  We didn’t have the Internet, but we had fancy 2400 baud dial up modems.  Some pipelines formed their own public boards for posting this information and some subscribed to services, such as EnerNet to make that information available.

The EBB is a term that has lived a good life and a long life, but to use the term today causes confusion.  Today, in natural gas we have websites.  An interstate pipeline usually has two distinct website offerings to meet regulatory requirements: the Customer Activities Website (CAW) and the Informational Postings Website (IPW).

CAW and IPW have meaning.  When you mention a CAW you know that this is the secured access site that customers use to transact business with a pipeline. When you mention and IPW you know that you are referring to the public information, unsecured posted information on a pipeline.

So does the EBB cover both the CAW and the IPW or is it something else? Good question!  In some of the NAESB standards they refer to the EBB/EDM as those electronic standards related to the website without specification of whether this is the IPW or CAW.  Elsewhere in NAESB WGQ definitions there is a definition of EBB/EDM that points directly to the CAW with no mention of the IPW. If you go deep enough to look at the EDM manuals, you will see that the EDM subcommittee has distinguished that EBB is the CAW and they refer to the IPW as IP/EDM.

Are you confused yet? You are not alone.  It is time to change the terminology and put the EBB term to rest and let the distinct IPW and CAW terms become the common language.

The answer to the question is that, even though Electronic Bulletin Board precedes the internet, it refers to the Customer Activities Website in Natural Gas.  For me, I try to avoid the term all together and just refer to them as CAW and IPW.

by sylviamunson

Why compliance matters to non-regulated entities

I often hear people comment that compliance issues don’t apply to them because they are not a FERC-regulated company.  If you are involved in transportation at any point in the natural gas business then compliance issues matter to you.

You can see the reason when you refer to the old adage that ‘it all rolls downhill’ but there is more to it than that.

Look at some of the basic FERC regulations.

The Gas Day.  NAESB, hence FERC, says that the Gas Day is from 9:00 am – 9:00 AM Central Time for interstate pipelines.  If you are transporting on an interstate pipeline, you must work within this timeline.  What about if you are delivering onto this pipeline as an upstream interstate pipeline or a midstream operator? Then you must work within this timeline.  What about if you are an LDC or Utility receiving from the interstate? Same story – you must use the timeline.  Now, if you have to use the timeline to put gas onto or take gas off of the interstate, guess what? It’s best if you run your own operations on that timeline! So as a midstream operator or an LDC, the easiest answer is for you to match the gas day of the interstate that you connect with.

This same logic applies to the nomination cycles.  Your business may not need to use all of the nomination cycles, but if you interconnect to an interstate or nominate on an interstate then you have to comply with those cycles in some manner to confirm your gas. You may be able to run your business such that you only have one official cycle, such as the Timely cycle, but you still have to be aware of and confirm on the other cycles.

As a midstream operator, you may not need all of the upstream party and contract information because you know where the gas is coming from in your gathering system, but you will need the downstream party and contract information to be collected with nominations so that it can be provided in the confirmation process.

As an LDC, you may not need the downstream party and contract information because you know where the gas is going in your distribution system, but you will need the upstream side of the information for support of confirmations on your upstream interconnects.

And then there is customer service.  Customers who nominate gas on your system are often the same customers transacting with interstate pipelines.  The more that you use the same terms, deadlines, and processes, the easier the communication will be with your customers.

I believe that there is an opportunity in the NAESB process for nomination model types to be defined that are specific to the needs of the midstream and LDC businesses.  The current model types are close to what these business lines need, but they require too much information compared to the true business model of the upstream.  If a model type existed that supported gathering from many wells without including upstream information but required the interconnect documentation on the downstream side, it would be a golden tool.  If a model type existed that supported the distribution side of the business without all of the unused downstream information but required the corresponding upstream interconnect documentation, it could ease the burden of some of the transactions.

But it takes someone to lead the charge.

by sylviamunson

Welcome

It seems like this first posting should explain why I’m writing a blog for Contents Under Pressure. I have worked in the natural gas industry for more than 30 years.  Out of that fabulous experience, I have just completed a book, titled “Contents Under Pressure – The Complete Guide to Natural Gas Transportation”. This is the book you have been waiting for and it will be available in early September.

But that’s not all.

In my work in the industry I get a lot of questions. Sometimes they make me dig deep into history and research to find the answer. Sometimes I know the answer off the top of my head.  And the fun questions make me look at the way I think about the business in a whole new way.

This blog is for those fun questions.

Here we will cover things that make you think (I hope) about the way you look at the business. It will cover super detailed explanations of really nit-picky issues that come up again and again. And we’ll will talk about what is going on in the industry that affects our business – market happenings, FERC rulings, and such that could impact or have already impacted our business.

I hope you enjoy it.  I love working in the natural gas industry because it is constantly changing through government rulings, market shifts and technology advances.  If you like change, natural gas is a great place to work.

Sign up to receive emails as they are posted.  Follow me! Pre-Order my book so that you’ll be ‘in the know’.  Provide comments and questions so that this can be as beneficial to you and your gas industry career as you need it to be.

Sylvia