Transco’s Sundance expansion project received two major boostslast week as Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) and Southern Co.each said they have purchased major capacity deals on the yet-to-beconstructed line. The contracts will go into effect when Sundancebecomes operational in the Spring of 2002, barring rejection fromFERC.

Both companies will use the capacity to fuel power plants.Southern signed on for 140 MMcf/d and CP&L signed on for 75MMcf/d.

The $134 million Sundance project is designed to provide 236MMcf/d of firm transportation capacity to markets in Georgia, SouthCarolina and North Carolina. Williams filed for Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission approval of the pipeline on April 3.

“With this agreement, we have secured the means to providereliable, low-cost energy to our customers for many years to come,”said Charles McCrary, president of Southern Co. Generation, thebusiness unit responsible for developing and operating SouthernCo.’s non-nuclear generating plants in the Southeast. “As we aregrowing to serve the needs of our customers, we’re developing anumber of clean, efficient, combined-cycle units across theSoutheast.”

To further aid their supply needs, Southern also signed up for40 MMcf/d on Transco’s SouthCoast project, a 204 MMcf/d expansionof Transco’s mainline from Station 85 to serve mainline deliverypoints in Alabama and Georgia.

CP&L plans to construct facilities and generate 7,000 MW inthe region by 2010. That total includes plans to build up to sevencombustion turbine generators at sites in Richmond and Rowancounties to be operational in 2001 and 2002.

To serve those markets, CP&L is planning to build a $100million, 82-mile intrastate lateral between Iredell and Richmondcounties which would originate from the Sundance expansion. The30-inch-diameter pipeline would have an initial capacity of 200MMcf/d with a total capability of 700 MMcf/d. It is scheduled to becompleted during the spring of 2001 to coincide with the start-upof the Richmond County power plant.

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