FERC granted approval this week for Williams Partners LP’s Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. LLC (Transco) to begin service on its Dalton Expansion Project.

The Dalton Expansion, which received a Natural Gas Act certificate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in August [CP15-117], is designed to add 448,000 Dth/d of capacity on the Transco mainline running from the Station 210 Zone 6 Pooling Point in Mercer County, NJ, to an interconnect with the Gulf South Pipeline Co. LP at Holmesville in Pike County, MS.

The project also includes a lateral starting at Transco’s Compressor Station 115 in Coweta County, GA.

The project is fully contracted and is designed to deliver natural gas to an existing electric generating facility in northern Georgia operated by Oglethorpe Power Corp., local distribution company Atlanta Gas Light, as well as the city of Cartersville.

In a pair of orders this week, FERC’s Office of Energy Projects authorized Transco to begin partial path interim service by April 1 for the full 448,000 Dth/d of incremental mainline capacity from Station 210 in Zone 6 to the Holmesville interconnect.

Transco had submitted a request to begin service on the Dalton project in late February.

According to the order, the interim service “will be available until such time that the full path facilities (including the Dalton Lateral) are constructed and placed into service.

“…The unsubscribed capacity would be…subject to an open season to solicit bids for interim service until” the remaining facilities are in service, FERC wrote.

The project is planned for full service by May 1, according to FERC.