The Sunbury Pipeline Project, designed to deliver 200,000 Dth/d to a new natural gas-fired power plant and to local distribution markets in Central Pennsylvania, received the green light from FERC Friday to move forward with construction.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a favorable environmental assessment of the 34.4-mile, 20-inch diameter Sunbury Pipeline late last year (see Shale Daily, Dec. 28, 2015). The project was first announced in late 2014 and applied with FERC for a certificate to construct the pipeline in July 2015.

Sunbury, backed by UGI Corp. subsidiary UGI Sunbury LLC, will primarily supply Marcellus and Utica shale gas to a new power plant in Snyder County, PA, the Hummel Station Generating Facility. The 1,124 MW combined-cycle Hummel Station is being built at the site of the shuttered coal-fired Sunbury Generation Facility.

“The support we’ve received from local, state and federal leadership and today’s approval by FERC enable this major step forward for a cleaner and more secure energy future in the central Susquehanna Valley and across the region,” said UGI Corp. CEO John Walsh. “The Sunbury Pipeline will establish a vital delivery link between abundant Pennsylvania natural gas and the Hummel Station, and is another example of UGI’s efforts to bridge the infrastructure gap between low-cost producing areas of Pennsylvania and consuming areas across our region.”

Sunbury will receive gas from an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC and MARC I Pipeline, operated by Central New York Oil & Gas Co., both in Lycoming County. The pipeline would also have delivery points along the proposed route in Northumberland and Snyder counties: UGI Central Penn Gas and UGI Penn Natural Gas.

Besides the pipeline, the Sunbury project includes related facilities in Snyder, Union, Northumberland, Montour and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania. No compression is proposed.

Sunbury expects construction of the project to be completed as early as November, “assuming timely receipt of all remaining necessary regulatory approvals.”