Market and Field Planned Service Outages

Northern has updated the planned service outages that will affect operating capacity within the months of June through October 2019 for both the Market and Field Areas. Please refer to non-critical notice 47711 and the Planned Service Outage Summary page for detailed information related to each outage, including the impacted allocation group(s) and/or point(s), direction of flow, normal operating capacity, estimated daily operating capacity during the outage and the anticipated impact to primary firm service.

Please continue to review the Planned Service Outage and Planned Service Outage Summary sections on Northern's website for updated information.

Potential for System Underrun Limitation

The likelihood of Northern calling a System Underrun Limitation (SUL) for its entire pipeline system for the upcoming weekend is at a higher probability due to high line pack conditions and Northern’s current inability to accommodate significant shipper length, which is due to the transition of Northern's storage fields from winter withdrawals to summer injections. Please refer to non-critical notice 48013 for additional pipeline conditions.

Asset Modernization Report 2019

In response to customer requests, Northern has prepared an Asset Modernization Report to provide additional information on Northern’s asset modernization plans over the next 10 years. The report includes descriptions of the projects, the anticipated costs and maps identifying the locations of the modernization projects. Northern will provide annual updates to this report.

Northern Files Renewed Motion to Terminate Section 5 Proceeding

On June 10, 2019, Northern filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to renew its motion to terminate the section 5 proceeding initiated by the Commission on January 16, 2019. If the section 5 proceeding is terminated, Northern commits not to file a section 4 rate case during the period after the termination through April 30, 2020.

On January 28, 2019, Northern filed to terminate the proceeding due to a significant calculation error the Commission made in its determination that Northern’s 2018 return on equity was potentially unreasonable. The Commission erroneously included $61 million of gas sales revenue without the associated cost of the gas. Had the Commission calculated Northern’s 2018 return on equity correctly, it would have produced a 13.7% return, rather than the 17.3% rate on which the Commission based its decision to implement the section 5. No party disputed Northern’s showing with respect to this error. Over four months have passed since the original motion to terminate was filed, and the Commission has not corrected its mistake or ruled on Northern’s motion. Northern respectfully requests the Commission to rule promptly on its pending motion and bring the erroneously-initiated proceeding to an end.

Potential Interruptible Storage Allocations

Northern is anticipating a greater likelihood of storage injection allocations over the next few weeks. Please see non-critical notice 47891 for further information.

Belleville East Group Allocation

Northern allocated Belleville East Allocation Group for Gas Day June 16, 2019. Please see non-critical notice 48007 for the nomination detail for the group allocated.