Leidy South will create 582,400 dekatherm (dth) per day of additional pipeline capacity by adding two greenfield compressor facilities come at an estimated cost of $100 million, said Williams, the operator of Transco. This infrastructure investment will support 680 jobs in Pennsylvania with an estimated payroll of $28 million, and produce $1.3 million in state tax revenue, according to third-party research.
Together, the Leidy South and Transco expansion will boost gas transit capacity enough to serve the equivalent of more than 2.5 million homes and allow further power plants to be converted from coal to natural gas. The expansion project is design to maximise use of the existing Transco gas transmission corridor in Pennsylvania and will seek to minimize the land use to meet these needs.
Transco is the largest-volume interstate natural gas pipeline system in the United States, supplying customers through its 10,000-mile pipeline network, whose mainline extends nearly 1,800 miles between South Texas and New York City. The system is a major provider of cost-effective natural gas services that reach U.S. markets in 12 Southeast and Atlantic Seaboard states, including major metropolitan areas in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Natural gas prices at the U.S. Henry Hub have fallen to record low due to a Covid-related slump in global energy demand, surplus shale gas production is either put into storage or increasingly used for power generation. Retrofitting aging coal power stations to run on natural gas is both economic in terms of fuel prices and helps operators comply with more stringent limits on NOx and CO2 emissions.
Alan Armstrong, president and chief executive officer of William said: “This project represents one of many opportunities to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions with right here, right now available solutions as coal-fired electric generation plants are replaced with natural gas units to reliably balance the intermittency of new renewable resources.
“In fact, there remain more than 80 coal plants in the states Transco serves that can potentially be displaced by clean, efficient and affordable natural gas.”