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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently took a step to improve communication between the natural gas and electricity industries, but experts say insufficient gas infrastructure and the nonalignment of gas and electricity markets will be thornier issues for the commission to deal with as the U.S. gas boom whets the appetite for more gas-fired power.

On Friday, FERC finalized Order No. 787, which authorizes interstate natural gas pipeline and electric transmission operators to voluntarily share nonpublic, operational information in order to ensure reliability and integrity of their systems as they increasingly become intertwined.

"Electricity suppliers using gas-fired generation want the lowest price for gas and the least amount of deliverability uncertainty," said William Booth, who leads the FERC practice at Michael Best. "The more electric generators can be aware of the sensitivities of the gas supplies, the more reliably they'll be able to operate and still make a reasonable margin on their energy sales."

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