The BGA checkpoint stories
Starting in 2005, Union South Bundled-T customers will have to manage their Banked Gas Account (BGA) at two checkpoints during the year on February 28th and September 30th and balance their contract at contract renewal.
To help customers get ready to manage these new checkpoint requirements, we are creating a short series of how three fictitious customers are progressing with their BGA balances throughout this winter. While you won’t have to meet any checkpoints this season, the customers in these stories certainly will.
The facts behind the fiction
These three fictitious customer stories will help you familiarize yourself with the new rule changes and requirements and will demonstrate how different customers might react to their changing circumstances. The stories will monitor their monthly consumption and will show how their BGA balance compares to their forecasted BGA. We will also sketch out the options these customers might consider using to meet their first BGA checkpoints in February. More importantly, the stories will also outline the potential consequences of all their balancing options. Behind these fictitious customers and circumstances will be a wealth of information with which you should become familiar.
Below you will find a link to the first of the monthly stories. We’ll publish a new chapter every month with the final chapter running in early March. For easy reference, we’ll send you a monthly e-mail reminder when they’re posted on our Web site.
We encourage you to check out these short stories over the next four months. It will help you get to know the service options you’ll want to consider using next year. Becoming familiar with all your BGA options and requirements now will lower your learning curve next year – and could save you some money.
Customer contract types
In the stories we’re following, each Bundled-T customer has signed a contract with an agreed upon BGA balance for February 29th and September 30th. These are the BGA checkpoints. Customers must ensure their BGA balance does not exceed either of their BGA checkpoint limits. Customers who operate within their checkpoint limits will not have to take any action or face any additional financial consequences. Industrial contract customers have the option of choosing either a Standard 1 or a Standard 2 type of contract as outlined below.
Union-determined option -- Standard 1 Contract
Union tracks the customer’s BGA balance, directing the customer to take the required action to meet the checkpoint limit. Union identifies the minimum amount required to meet the checkpoint requirement. By taking this required action, customers fulfill their contract obligations and avoid additional charges.
Customer-determined option -- Standard 2 Contract
The customer tracks their own BGA balance and determines the type and magnitude of the action required to meet that checkpoint limit. The customer is subject to a charge for any amount that exceeds the checkpoint limit.
To get the most out of these stories, we suggest you follow these stories throughout the entire four month period.
The customer profiles
To demonstrate how customers will respond in the balancing world of the future, we’ve created some fictional customers who are working to avoid checkpoint penalties of the future. These customers are breaking new ground because they are faced with meeting their new BGA checkpoints this winter. Here are the customers we’ll be following.
- Acme Steel Fabricators – vehicle parts manufacturing
Contract selected: Union-determined option -- Standard 1 Contract
Acme Steel Fabricators is a vehicle parts manufacturing plant with large production and warehouse facilities. The production facility employs heat treatment processing to make metals pliable enough for shaping. Production energy requirements are still significantly higher than their space heating requirements – no matter how cold it gets outside.
- Green Thumb Growers – greenhouse
Contract selected: Union-determined option – Standard 1 Contract
Green Thumb grows fruit and vegetable seedlings for exterior replanting. While production costs remain relatively constant, weather and temperature changes can have an enormous impact on their total energy requirements.
- High-Tech University – post-secondary educational institute
Contract selected: Customer-determined option – Standard 2 Contract
High-Tech University is an established and respected post-secondary educational institute. The sprawling campus has over 30 buildings. It includes libraries, lecture halls and student dormitories. Natural gas loads for the campus are very weather sensitive. When the weather is warm, natural gas consumption is relatively low. Colder weather increases space heating requirements and drives up natural gas consumption significantly.