FERC has approved construction of Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC’s (Transco) Virginia Southside Expansion Project II, which would serve the needs of Dominion Virginia Power to fuel a new 1,580 MW power plant it plans to build in Greensville County, VA.

The Virginia Southside II Expansion is designed to provide 250,000 Dth/d of firm transportation capacity to a delivery point on a new lateral off Transco’s Brunswick Lateral in Virginia, providing gas needed to serve a new 1,580 MW combined-cycle generation facility that Dominion Virginia Power is constructing in Greensville County, VA [CP15-118].

FERC approved Virginia Southside II Expansion earlier this year, with a scheduled in-service date during the fourth quarter of 2017 (see Daily GPI, July 29).

In a letter dated Wednesday (Oct. 5), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects granted Transco’s request to begin construction in Polk County, NC, and Spartanburg and Cherokee counties, SC, along with requests to begin project activities at the Clover Road Contractor Yard in Mecklenberg County, VA, and at the existing Compressor Station 166 in Pittsylvania County, VA.

Environmental groups have argued that FERC should weigh the Virginia Southside Expansion Project II (not to be confused with the original Virginia Southside [see Daily GPI, Sept. 1, 2015]) simultaneously with Tranco’s Atlantic Sunrise Project, as they both involve work at the same existing compressor station in Virginia (see Daily GPI, Jan. 14). Atlantic Sunrise received a positive draft environmental impact statement from Commission staff in May (see Daily GPI, May 6) [CP15-138].

Atlantic Sunrise would provide 1.7 Bcf/d of firm capacity from northern Pennsylvania in Transco Zone 6 to Transco Station 85 in Alabama, including markets along the pipeline’s system in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and interconnects with existing pipelines serving the Florida market.