A Williams Partners LP unit asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a lateral expansion project designed to increase natural gas deliveries to a gas and electric utility in Washington.
In a May 21 letter to FERC, Northwest Pipeline LLC requested an authorizing certificate order by June 8 for the North Seattle lateral upgrade project, which would give the developer time to have the facilities ready by the 2019 winter heating season for the project customer, Puget Energy Inc.'s Puget Sound Energy Inc. The developer initially asked the commission for a certificate order by April 1.
Puget Sound asked that the project be operational by the end of 2019 to curb potential service disruptions for customers "during peak demand periods and to serve future area growth," according to Northwest. The upgrade would increase capacity on the lateral by 159,299 Dth/d for Puget Sound.
The approximately $47.3 million project would consist of replacing 5.9 miles of 8-inch-diameter pipeline with a 20-inch-diameter pipeline, relocating and replacing 0.17 mile of 16-inch-diameter pipeline and rebuilding a meter station. The entire project would be built and operated in Snohomish County, Wash.
Northwest filed an abbreviated application for the upgrade project May 11, 2017, and FERC staff issued a favorable environmental review Feb. 12. (FERC docket CP17-441)
