Viking Gas Transmission got some good news last week when FERCapproved a looping expansion of its system that will make itpossible for existing customers between the northern Minnesotaborder and West-Central Wisconsin to receive up to 28,000 Dth/d ofadditional gas supplies by the end of the year.

Viking Gas plans to construct loops at five different segments -all in Minnesota – of its 497-mile system, which would result in a5.5% increase in the pipeline’s current capacity of 480 MMcf/d,said Viking President Gregory Palmer. “It’s kind of a benchmark forus” because it will boost Viking’s total system capability to overhalf a Bcf per day.

He estimated that the $21.4 million planned expansion, which hasa target in-service date of Nov. 1, was 100% subscribed for winterand 89% subscribed for summer [CP98-761].

Five shippers have signed 15-year agreements for the expansioncapacity, including Cardinal FG; the City of Perham, MN; NorthernStates Power-Minnesota (Viking’s parent); Northern StatesPower-Wisconsin (affiliate); and UtiliCorp United. The Vikingaffiliates picked up the lion’s share of the capacity.

FERC approved Viking’s request for incremental monthly demandrates of $10.65/Dth for firm service from its Emerson interconnect(at the U.S.-Canadian international boundary) to any Zone 1delivery point and $13.65/Dth for firm service from Emerson to anyZone 2 delivery point. Given that the proposed commodity rate forthe project was equal to the existing commodity rate for firmservice, FERC said its acceptance of the rate was subject to theoutcome of Viking’s pending general rate case [RP98-290].

Because Viking proposes to recover its annual $3.9 million costof service entirely through incremental rates, the Commission didnot believe it needed to include an at-risk condition on theproject.

Susan Parker

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