The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has voted to issue a preliminary determination (PD) to Greenbrier Pipeline Co. LLC’s $497 million pipeline project that, when completed, would serve the natural gas demands of the burgeoning power generation market in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic regions, primarily in Virginia and North Carolina (CP02-396).

Approval of the PD covers all aspects of the project except the environmental conditions, which take longer to process. The Commission last week approved a draft environmental impact statement, including mitigation measures that would minimize environmental damage. The next step is for FERC to issue a final environmental impact statement.

The Greenbrier Pipeline is the first to test the Commission’s new pre-filing system, which allows for filing of information on a project, particularly environmental information, before an actual certificate application is made. This is aimed at speeding up the process. Greenbrier’s application was filed in July (see Daily GPI, July 8).

The Greenbrier Pipeline, which has elicited numerous landowner protests, would originate in Kanawha County, WV, with interconnections to Dominion Transmission Inc. and Tennessee Gas Pipeline, and extend through southwestern Virginia into Granville County, NC. The partners in the pipe project are Dominion and Piedmont Natural Gas, with a one-third stake. Piedmont serves 700,000 local distribution customers in North Carolina.

The project would consist of 276 miles of mainline and three laterals totaling 3.8 miles, as well as two compressor stations and three meter stations. It is expected initially to transport up to 600,000 Dth/d of gas to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions starting in June 2005. Gas supplies delivered from Dominion Transmission and Tennessee into Greenbrier near Charleston, WV, would come from the Appalachian, Canadian, Gulf Coast and Midcontinent regions or storage facilities operated by Dominion.

Greenbrier and Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Momentum project, which was approved last February, are competing for about 10,000 MW of new gas-fired power generation that is planned for Virginia and North Carolina by 2007, which translates to about 1.8 Bcf/d of incremental growth. A number of new or expanded pipelines have been proposed for the Southeast (see Daily GPI, Dec. 7, 2001).

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