Williams and British Columbia Hydro are holding an open seasonthrough Feb. 22 for their proposed Georgia Strait Crossing PipelineProject (GSX). The project was announced in September (see Daily GPI,Sept. 30).

The project would be an 85-mile international pipeline extensionfrom Sumas, WA, to Vancouver Island, BC, to serve two proposed newcogeneration plants on the island. It would be a three-year, $120million project to transport about 100 MMcf/d for the cogenerationplants and additional industrial loads on both sides of theinternational border.

Initial planning calls for a 16-inch-diameter pipeline extendingfrom Northwest’s current pipe at Sumas, WA, 33 miles onshore in theU.S. to the industrialized waterfront near Cherry Point, WA; thengoing underwater 44 miles to Vancouver Island and another 8 milesto a point near Shawnigan Lake on the Island where two 250 MWcogeneration plants would be located. The pipeline wouldinterconnect with Vancouver’s local LDC, Centra Gas, at this point.Centra Gas already has a 130 MMcf/d pipeline serving the island,but that line cannot accommodate new load.

The load for the two cogeneration plants is estimated at about81 MMcf/d. The initial design capacity of 100 MMcf/d assumes thatthe open seasons don’t yield additional load, a Williams managersaid. Williams’ engineering staff calls the project “easilyexpandable.”

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