Discontinuation of descriptive fields in N.American power and natgas CSV files

In June 2014, Platts Reference Standard (PRS) was launched for electric power and natural gas symbols, which provides a standardized set of reference data for each symbol. The reference data is delivered via CSV files on Platts FTP site, and through Platts Market Data Direct Excel plug-in and API. As a result and effective 18th May 2015, the additional descriptive fields (Commodity,Region1,Region2,Hub,TOD,Price Tp,GD Id,GD Tkr,Rel Del Pd,Del Pd,Del Yr) in North American power and natural gas Market Data CSV files delivered on Platts.com (Athena) will be removed. This will also bring our North American power and natural gas Market Data files in line with the standard CSV data files. Please see page 45 of Market Data User Guide PDF for all impacted Market Data categories from which the additional descriptive fields will be removed:

http://www.platts.com/IM.Platts.Content/SubscriberServices/SoftwareUserManual s/MarketDataUserGuide.pdf

Here?s a sample from the CSV files for market data category GD in its raw (comma-delimited) format:

GD,ASIA,1/2/2014,1/2/2014 15:40,"? 2014 by McGraw Hill Financial, Inc.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Trans,Symbol,Description,Currency,UOM,Date,Low(l),High(h),Close(c),Index(u),P rev Vol(w),Volume(v),Bid(b),Ask(a),Open(o),Prev Opn Int(e),Mean(m),Commodity,Region1,Region2,Hub,TOD,Price Tp,GD Id,GD Tkr,Rel Del Pd,Del Pd,Del Yr N,BGBAB21,El Paso Permian FDt DlCt,UNS,CON,1/2/2014,,,,75,,,,,,,,NatGas,West - West Texas,Permian Basin Area,EL PASO PERMIAN,,FDt DlCt,3928329,EPP,,,47 N,BGBAD21,Waha FDt DlCt,UNS,CON,1/2/2014,,,,64,,,,,,,,NatGas,West - West Texas,Permian Basin Area,WAHA,,FDt DlCt,3928379,WAHA,,,

In the example above, all fields after Mean(m) bate will be removed, including the headings, as shown below:

GD,ASIA,1/2/2014,1/2/2014 15:40,"? 2014 by McGraw Hill Financial, Inc.",,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Trans,Symbol,Description,Currency,UOM,Date,Low(l),High(h),Close(c),Index(u),P rev Vol(w),Volume(v),Bid(b),Ask(a),Open(o),Prev Opn Int(e),Mean(m) N,BGBAB21,El Paso Permian FDt DlCt,UNS,CON,1/2/2014,,,,75,,,,,,,, N,BGBAD21,Waha FDt DlCt,UNS,CON,1/2/2014,,,,64,,,,,,,,

If you are interested in learning more about Plats Reference Standard data, please contact Platts Sales team at sales@platts.com and we will be happy to discuss this with you.

If you have any comments or questions about this announcement, please contact Platts Client Services or email support@platts.com.