Sabal Trail Transmission LLC has filed a Section 7(c) application at FERC for its proposed pipeline to deliver gas to power generators and local distribution companies in Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Foundation shippers Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) and Duke Energy Florida Inc. (DEF) have signed up for 1 million Dth/d of firm capacity.

Sabal Trail is a joint venture of Spectra Energy and NextEra Energy Inc. The companies won the bid to construct the pipeline for FPL last year (see Daily GPI, July 29, 2013). Service is planned to begin May 1, 2017, with 830,000 Dth/d of capacity, to be expanded later with compression additions.

The project is composed of lease capacity and greenfield pipeline with firm capacity of about 1.075 million Dth/d. It would carry gas from multiple upstream supply sources at Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) Compressor Station 85 to a new market interconnection hub, known as the Central Florida Hub, in Osceola County, FL.

“Sabal Trail will acquire the capacity necessary for the project to access receipts of gas at Transco’s Compressor Station 85 pursuant to the Transco Lease,” Sabal Trail told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [CP15-17].

“The Transco Lease is a mainline capacity lease of new incremental capacity on the Transco system extending from Transco’s Zone 4 Pool and Transco’s interconnections with Midcontinent Express Pipeline LLC (MEP) and Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP (Gulf South), all located at Transco Compressor Station 85 in Choctaw County, AL, to an interconnection with Sabal Trail’s proposed new greenfield natural gas transmission system in Tallapoosa County, AL (Tallapoosa Interconnection).”

The greenfield portion of Sabal Trail would consist of about 500 miles of pipeline. The mainline would run from Tallapoosa County to the Central Florida Hub where the project would interconnect with the proposed Florida Southeast Connection LLC (FSC) transmission system (see Daily GPI, Oct. 10), the existing Gulfstream Natural Gas System LLC transmission system and the existing Florida Gas Transmission Co. LLC (FGT) transmission system.

The FSC and Gulfstream interconnects are near Sabal Trail’s proposed Reunion Compressor Station in Osceola County, and the FGT interconnect is at the terminus of Sabal Trail’s proposed 36-inch diameter line extending from the Reunion Compressor Station to the FGT system in Orange County, FL. The project also includes a 24-inch diameter pipeline extending from a point in Marion County, FL, to a proposed electric generation plant to be constructed by DEF in Citrus County, FL. Five compressor stations and six meter/regulating stations are planned.

The company said its pipeline would diversify gas supply and meet incremental demand in Florida and the Southeast while strengthening reliability through the addition of a third gas transmission system serving peninsular Florida. “The State of Florida has no natural gas storage, little natural gas production and the two pipelines that serve the majority of the state are either fully subscribed or near full subscription,” Sabal Trail told FERC.

“The Sabal Trail Project will allow natural gas users in the region to diversify access to growing natural gas supplies by providing the region with direct access to diverse and substantial gas supplies at Transco Station 85. Because Gulfstream and FGT are at or near full subscription, the project is necessary to provide new access to multiple, growing supply areas, including the Barnett, Haynesville, Fayetteville, Woodford/Caney, Eagle Ford and Marcellus shale production areas and conventional onshore and offshore supplies through the new Sabal Trail system from the Transco Zone 4 Pool and the MEP and Gulf South interconnections at Transco Compressor Station 85.

“The project will allow the region to reduce its reliance on offshore supply which, in turn, will lessen the region’s vulnerability to supply disruptions that can result from severe weather in the Gulf of Mexico.”