Tennessee Gas Pipeline gets draft EIS for Cumberland powerplant spur

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Inc., has received a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) from the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for its 245-MMcfd Cumberland project. The 32-mile pipeline would run through Dickson, Houston, and Stewart Counties, Tenn., supplying the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 1,450-Mw Cumberland natural gas combined-cycle powerplant, currently under development.

FERC concluded that—with implementation of Tennessee’s proposed impact avoidance, minimization, and mitigation measures, as well as adherence to Commission staff’s recommendations—project effects would be reduced to less than significant levels, except for climate change impacts that were not characterized in the EIS as significant or insignificant. The draft EIS comment period closes Mar. 27, 2023.

Cumberland will use 30-in. OD pipe and connect at Tennessee’s existing Line 100-3 and Line 100-4.  It will also include a new bidirectional back-pressure regulation station in Dickson County at milepost 0.0 of the proposed Cumberland pipeline where it meets Line 100-3 and Line 100-4, and a new meter station at lines-end within TVA property in Stewart County.

TVA earlier this year decided to retire its Cumberland fossil plant and build the combined-cycle plant by 2026. The two-unit Cumberland fossil plant will retire in two stages, one unit by end-2026 and the second by end-2028. TVA says that construction of the combined-cycle natural gas plant—for replacement of one of the retiring Cumberland units—will reduce carbon emissions by as much as 60%.