Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. (TGP), a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI), Houston, has been cleared by KMI’s board to proceed with plans to build the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) natural gas project’s “market path” segment from Wright, NY, to Dracut, Mass.
First proposed in 2014, TGP has said that the $3.3-billion NED project could involve a combination of 30-in. and 36-in. mainline and provide 1.3-2.2 bcfd of incremental gas capacity. TGP has opted to build the line using 30-in. pipe.
“While TGP is now moving forward with a 30-in. pipeline design, circumstances could arise in the very near term as more capacity commitments are made that would necessitate a design modification to a 36-in. pipeline design, and that would require us to file an amended application with the [US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission],” said Kimberly S. Watson, KMI east region pipelines president.
The NED project, which will serve gas local distribution companies and electric distribution companies in New England, will be an extension off of KMI’s existing TGP pipeline.
TGP intends to file the certificate application for the project in October to meet the full design capacity of 1.3 bcfd. “KMI will scale the facilities to match the firm subscription obtained by seeking authorization to install the compression on an ‘as needed’ basis, with the ability to add additional compression later up to the full design capacity as additional capacity is subscribed,” the company said.
Subject to the timely receipt of necessary regulatory permits, NED is anticipated to start service in November 2018.
