FERC granted final certificates last Wednesday for Northwest Pipeline’s Grays Harbor lateral, which will serve a new Duke Energy power plant in Washington, and to Kern River Gas Transmission’s High Desert Lateral, which will deliver gas to the High Desert Power Project near Victorville, CA.

Northwest proposed 49-mile Grays Harbor Lateral will deliver up to 161,500 Dth/d of gas to Duke Energy Grays Harbor LLC’s proposed power plant in Grays Harbor County, WA. The $75.2 million pipeline project includes two 16-inch diameter taps and would have 4,700 hp of compression from the Turnwater Station. Duke broke ground last fall on the $300 million electric power generating facility which is about 32 miles west of Olympia.

The facility, located in the Satsop Development Park, would be a 650 MW combined-cycle power plant designed to supply electricity to the state and regional wholesale markets by mid-2003, with enough energy to light and heat about 600,000 homes. It would be built on a site acquired from Energy Northwest, located next to the closed Satsop nuclear plant projects.

Although the nuclear plants were never operational, the new plant would use some of the same site facilities associated with the partially completed plants, including the electric transmission and water systems. Energy Northwest would operate and maintain the facility when construction is completed, and it has an option to purchase a portion of the plant’s output.

The proposed 20-inch diameter Grays Harbor Lateral would extend from Northwest’s mainline near Vail, WA, to the plant site near Elma, WA. The first 30 miles would parallel Northwest’s existing Olympia and McCleary laterals. Duke has signed a long-term agreement for up to the full 161,500 Dth/d of firm capacity on the lateral, which is scheduled to be in service in November.

FERC dismissed claims by BP Energy that the proposed lateral’s new load might increase the strain on Northwest’s system, which relies on displacement capacity. The lateral “will not have an adverse impact on Northwest’s requirements for displacement capacity, particularly since the new load will replace an existing load in the same proximity on Northwest’s mainline facilities,” FERC said in a preliminary determination last fall [CP01-361]. “Essentially, the operational status quo on Northwest’s system would be maintained.”

Kern River’s 32-mile High Desert lateral in San Bernardino County would deliver 282,000 Dth/d of gas to the 720 MW High Desert Power Project. The 24-inch diameter pipeline will extend from the Kern River/Mojave common facilities and the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) system interconnects near Daggett to the gas-fired electric generating plant, which has been under construction since last summer.

Completion of the pipeline later is scheduled for Sept. 1. The 922-mile Kern River transmission system currently delivers 835 MMcf/d of Rocky Mountain gas to markets in California, Nevada, and Utah.

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