FERC issues natural gas project approvals, extension

The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved two natural gas pipeline projects last week. FERC gave its go-ahead to both a 364-MMcfd expansion of Williams Cos.’ Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line system (Transco)—the Texas-to-Louisiana Energy Pathway—and construction of a 32-mile, 245-MMcfd pipeline by Kinder Morgan Inc.’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (TGPC) LLC to supply the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) 1,450-Mw Cumberland natural gas combined-cycle powerplant, currently under development.

TVA is in the process of retiring coal-fired generation, including a unit at Cumberland. TGPC’s 30-in. OD Cumberland Pipeline would extend from its existing Lines 100-3 and 100-4 in Dickson County, Tenn., to a delivery point in Stewart County supplying a new combined-cycle TVA plant expected to enter service in 2026.

The two-unit Cumberland coal-fired 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 the first of the retiring Cumberland units—will reduce carbon emissions by as much as 60%.

FERC also issued a 1-year extension to Transco to complete its 400-MMcfd Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project, approved in 2019. NESE, which still needs state-level approvals, would move gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey to New York City using 23.5 miles of subsea pipe. The pipeline would connect to the existing Rockaway Delivery Lateral in Queens, NY, providing incremental capacity to National Grid USA Service Co. Inc. customers in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island.