Hydro

Siemens Water Technologies will provide Hydro Recovery LP with a system to treat natural gas hydraulic fracturing wastewater from Marcellus Shale drilling and produced water from operating wells in northeastern Pennsylvania. The system, which Siemens said will produce a hydraulic stimulation fluid for reuse, will be part of a new wastewater treatment plant scheduled to go online in April in Tioga County, PA. The system is designed to treat 288,000 gallons of wastewater daily, reducing total suspended solids to less than 100 parts per million. Last year Pennsylvania adopted wastewater treatment rules that limit discharges of wastewater from gas drilling to 500 milligrams per liter (mg/l) of total dissolved solids and 250 mg/l for chlorides (see Daily GPI, Aug. 26, 2010).

Florida Gas Transmission allowed an Overage Alert Day to lapse last Saturday that been initiated a week earlier.

USGen New England Inc. and an affiliate of TransCanada Corp. have signed an asset purchase agreement for TransCanada to purchase hydroelectric generation assets with a total generating capacity of 567 MW for U.S. $505 million in cash.

A price tag of C$500-$700 million (US$375-$525 million) has been put on a plan to turn the Mackenzie Delta Gas Pipeline and production project into the launching pad for significant hydroelectric development in the Northwest Territories. However, sponsors of Canada’s Arctic natural gas project are trying to figure out whether this would be an added complication or an answer to their most difficult problem of obtaining community consent to construction of its production and pipeline system.

A price tag of C$500-$700 million (US$375-$525 million) has been put on a plan to turn the Mackenzie Delta Gas Pipeline and production project into the launching pad for significant hydroelectric development in the Northwest Territories. However, sponsors of Canada’s Arctic natural gas project are trying to figure out whether this would be an added complication or an answer to their most difficult problem of obtaining community consent to construction of its production and pipeline system.

The drought that has suppressed hydro generation levels in the western United States may put more financial pressure on utilities that serve the region, according to a report published Thursday by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P).

Based on current reservoir levels, it is unlikely that hydroelectric output in the Pacific Northwest will return to normal levels in the coming year, and demand on gas-fired units will increase, a new report by Arlington, VA-based Energy and Environmental Analysis Inc. (EEA) concludes. As a result, EEA has adjusted its forecast for hydroelectric generation downward for 2002 and 2003, with a return to normal output in 2004.

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).

PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest reported completing hydrotesting of its A-Line ahead of schedule. The project’s end restoredcapacity to best-efforts levels of 2,620 MMcf/d at Kingsgate and1,930 MMcf/d at Station 14 Friday.