With a fourth expansion set to be finished this summer, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. utility unit earlier this month completed three other expansions of its transmission/storage system. Collectively the enhancements will boost SoCal’s system by 11% or 375 MMcf/d.

“The added capacity is enough to fuel more than five new power plants producing about 2,800 MW of electricity,” SoCal announced in an internal report on the upgrades. “Natural gas is the main fuel used in generating power at most California power plants.”

The nation’s largest natural gas distribution utility, which is one of two major utilities owned by San Diego-based Sempra, is touting the upgrades as a means to provide large-volume gas users more flexibility and reliability, linking them to new supply sources in the state. “The increased supply choices will help mitigate a recurrence of price volatility that California’s energy market experienced over the past two years,” said Lee Stewart, SoCal’s senior vice president for transmission.

The three expansion projects that were completed earlier this spring are:

The final upgrade is called the “Sylmar Station” project in the northern end of the Los Angeles Basin and it will allow an extra 40 MMcf/d of gas to flow from local production in the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley around Bakersfield.

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