Balancing Bundled Transportation Contracts

Customers/agents responsible for Southern BT contracts are required to balance their contracts within certain tolerances during the term of the contract. This may require the customer/agent to:

• Deliver/dispose gas to/from the Banked Gas Account (BGA) to balance within the Contracted Ceiling and Contracted Floor at contract expiry; and/or
• Deliver gas to the BGA to balance to the February checkpoint; and/or
• Dispose gas from the BGA to balance to the September checkpoint; and/or
• In some cases, deliver/dispose gas to maintain the BGA balance within upper and lower tolerances during each month of the contract.

Failure to take appropriate balancing actions will result in additional charges being applied.

A customer may have a choice between Utility Determined and Customer Determined checkpoint balancing depending upon the types of end use accounts at the time a contract starts or renews.

A customer may take service under the Utility Determined balancing option (where customer/agent is required to take the action identified by Utility to meet a checkpoint) or under the Customer Determined balancing option (where customer/agent is required to balance their BGA to a specific amount). To take service under the Customer Determined option, there must be at least one end use account on the contract with daily meter reads.

Further details surrounding balancing requirements can be found in Schedule 2 of the contract.

The Balancing Criteria section of the Direct Purchase (DP) status report summarizes the calculations used to determine the customer/agent’s potential balancing actions. It includes two variances:

• The difference between the Banked Gas Account (BGA) balance for the most recent month of actual information and the forecast of the BGA balance for the same month from the most recent contract amendment; and
• The difference between the BGA balance projected for the next balancing point (reflecting actual information to date and any new forecast information) and the contracted next balancing point from the most recent contract amendment.

For example, if a contract expires at the end of September, the DP status report issued in July will show the difference between the actual BGA balance at the end of June and the forecast of the June balance from the last amendment. It will also show the difference between the projected BGA balance at the end of September and the forecast of the September balance from the last amendment.

Generally, Enbridge Gas accepts balancing actions based on the lesser of the two variances -- provided that the balancing action will bring the BGA balance closer to the forecast curve without overcorrecting. Customers may transact based on the projected variance only when the DP Status report for activity two months prior to a checkpoint or expiry month is available (e.g. mid-August for September checkpoint).

If the next month is a balancing month (e.g. checkpoints or contract expiry/renewal), the DP Status report will also let the customer know whether any action is required or suggested.

If a customer’s consumption plans have changed from what is reflected in the last contract amendment, a revised forecast can be supplied by the customer for consideration by Enbridge Gas.

If the customer/agent takes action to balance to zero based on the exact quantity "suggested" on the DP Status issued during the expiry month, Enbridge Gas will allow the actual balance to carry over without additional charges even if the actual balance falls outside of the upper and lower contract tolerances.

This does not preclude the customer/agent from balancing to a different value if they choose. However, the actual balance must then fall within the upper and lower tolerances to avoid the charges outlined in the contract being applied.