Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s $134 million Sundance expansion project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week in a draft certificate issued at the Commission’s regular meeting. The looping and compression project will provide an additional 236,383 Dth/d of firm transportation capacity to 12 shippers in the Southeast.

About 38 miles of new 42-inch and 48-inch diameter pipeline looping will be installed along the company’s existing mainline system and there will be modifications to existing compressor stations in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina. The project will go in service in the spring of 2002.

Robust economic growth in the Southeast and development of significant new gas-fired power generation were the main forces driving the expansion. Southern Co. and Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) agreed to purchase most of the capacity of the project to serve new power generation. The remaining capacity was taken by nine municipal utilities in Georgia and South Carolina and one LDC in South Carolina. Southern purchased 140,000 Dth/d and CP&L signed up for 75 MMcf/d. CP&L also is planning to build a $100 million, 82-mile intrastate lateral downstream of Sundance between Iredell and Richmond counties in North Carolina. The 30-inch-diameter lateral would have an initial capacity of 200 MMcf/d with expansion capability up to 700 MMcf/d.

The Commission also approved Transco’s proposal to charge expansion shippers an incremental rate for firm service using the expansion capacity and the newly expanded North Georgia system. However, the Commission’s cost-of-service analysis resulted in a slight decrease in the proposed rate because of an adjustment to interest expense and the resulting decrease in taxes. The maximum recourse rate is $9.1769/Dth for firm service on the mainline and $3.7323/Dth for firm service on the North Georgia extension expansion. The 100% load factor rate is $0.3017/Dth for the mainline and $0.1227/Dth for the North Georgia extension.

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