FERC staff has issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) for the proposed 34.4-mile Sunbury Pipeline, which would serve a power plant in Pennsylvania and interconnect with two existing pipelines.

The pipeline is a project of UGI Sunbury LLC, which announced the project late last year and applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a certificate for the pipeline in July (see Daily GPI, Dec. 22, 2014). Proposed and recommended mitigation measures would mean the project won’t significantly affect the environment, Commission staff said [CP15-525].

The new Hummel Station Generating Facility in Snyder County, PA, would be the main recipient of Marcellus and Utica shale gas carried by Sunbury. Besides the 20-inch diameter pipeline, the Sunbury project includes related facilities in Snyder, Union, Northumberland, Montour and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania. No compression is proposed.

On May 5, Hummel Station, LLC received a major facility plan permit approval for the power plant, which is to be constructed at the site of an existing coal-fired facility. Sunbury would also provide gas service at two additional delivery points along the proposed pipeline route in Northumberland and Snyder Counties: UGI Central Penn Gas and UGI Penn Natural Gas.

Sunbury would receive gas from an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC and MARC I Pipeline, operated by Central New York Oil & Gas Co., both in Lycoming County. Sunbury entered into a precedent agreement with a foundation shipper, Hummel, for 180,000 Dth/d (176 MMcf/d) of firm capacity. Sunbury held a binding open season from Jan. 7 through Jan. 16 to solicit additional firm shippers. Binding bids in the amount of 200,000 Dth/d of capacity were received in the open season, for which Sunbury designed its proposal.

The project would provide capacity of approximately 200,000 Dth/d (195 MMcf/d) with a target in-service date of Feb. 1, 2017.