The Gateway Expansion Project in New Jersey has been completed a full 11 months ahead of schedule, Tulsa-based Williams said Tuesday.

The project was successfully placed into service New Year’s Eve to meet growing natural gas demand for New Jersey tri-state area consumers in time for the winter heating season, Williams said.

The project called for expanding the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Co. (Transco) system, providing an additional 65,000 Dth/d of firm transportation service to PSEG Power LLC and UGI Energy Services LLC to serve their incremental supply needs in New Jersey and New York beginning with the 2020-2021 winter heating season.

Transco filed for authorization of the project from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission more than two years ago, and it was issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity in December 2018. Construction began in early 2019 [CP18-18].

“The project provides gas supply capacity to meet the daily home heating, hot water and cooking needs of about 280,000 homes,” Williams said. “This is equivalent to removing approximately 590,000 metric tons per year of greenhouse gas emissions as a result of converting heating oil to natural gas.

“Switching to natural gas is estimated to provide savings of $1,460/year per household compared to heating oil.”

The expansion was planned to provide 54,000 Dth/d from Transco’s existing Station 210 pooling point to an existing interconnection with PSEG at the Ridgefield meter and regulating (M&R) station in Bergen County, NJ. Another 11,000 Dth/d would be provided from receipt points to an existing interconnection with PSEG at the Paterson M&R station in Passaic County, NJ.

The project also includes the addition of 27,500 hp at Transco’s existing compressor station 303 in Essex County, NJ, and other associated modifications in the area. No additional pipeline or pipeline looping is required, according to Transco’s application.

With the expansion, the Transco pipeline’s system-design capacity increased to 17.3 million Dth/d. The system includes about 10,000 miles of pipeline between South Texas and New York City.