The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week voted out an order to downsize and phase the construction of an already-certificated expansion of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp.’s mainline pipeline system in the Southeast region.

Transco asked the Commission to amend a certificate, which the agency issued on Feb. 14, for its so-called Momentum pipe looping and compression project in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, after two shippers pulled out of the expansion [CP01-388-002]. The shippers, who had subscribed to 90,000 Dth/d of project capacity, were Calpine Energy Services LP and Gen Power Andersen LLC.

Two other shippers, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and United Cities Gas Co., have stepped in as replacement shippers, but they have committed to only 54,000 Dth/d of firm service starting May 1, 2004.

As a result, the capacity to be created by the Momentum project will be 322,898 Dth/d instead of the originally proposed 358,898 Dth/d, according to Transco. In addition, FERC agreed to allow Transco to build the project in two phases: the Phase I facilities will provide 268,898 Dth/d of capacity starting May 1, 2003; and the Phase II facilities will provide service to Municipal Electric and United Cities, beginning in May 2004.

The $189 million project will consist of 49.98 miles of 42- and 48-inch diameter pipeline loop (14 miles fewer than the original project), as well as the addition of 45,000 horsepower of compression at four existing compressor stations in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina.

Separately, FERC last Thursday vacated a certificate that gave ANR Pipeline the green light to build a lateral extension to provide natural gas to a planned power generation plant in Wisconsin.

ANR in February asked FERC to take this action after Badger Generating Co., which would have been served by the lateral, nixed plans to construct a proposed generation facility [CP01-79].

The $19.5 million project had called for ANR to build 13 miles of 20-inch diameter looping along the pipeline’s Racine Lateral and a 10-mile extension of the lateral to the proposed Badger plant. It would have had a deliverability capacity of 210 MMcf/d.

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