Millennium Pipeline Company, LLC Response to New York State Energy Highway RFI

Transcription

1 Millennium Pipeline Company, LLC Response to New York State Energy Highway RFI

2 One Blue Hill Plaza, 7th Floor Post Office Box 1565 Pearl River, N Y Voice Fax Respondent Information: Millennium Pipeline, LLC One Blue Hill Plaza, 7 th Floor Pearl River, NY Primary Contact: Stan Brownell VP Business Development and Marketing Phone: (845) Brownell@MillenniumPipeline.com Millennium Pipeline, LLC (Millennium) owns and operates a 182- mile interstate natural gas pipeline regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that runs from New York's Southern Tier to the Lower Hudson Valley (Fig. 1). Millennium is owned by a partnership that includes NiSource, DTE and National Grid and was originally constructed to provide transportation services for Consolidated Edison, Orange and Rockland, Central Hudson, National Grid and Columbia Gas Transmission. Millennium is exclusively in the business of natural gas transportation. The Millennium pipeline went into service on December 22, Millennium continues to expand its system capabilities and in the summer of 2011 Millennium filed an application with FERC to construct a new compressor station in Orange County New York to help meet the growing demand for clean energy in the Northeast. Plans for a second compressor station in Delaware County are currently underway. Project Description: Millennium s pipeline provides the Hudson Valley region with access to natural gas supplies from various regions, including direct access to the prolific Marcellus and Utica shale regions. As such, Millennium is in the unique position of being able to provide transportation services immediately that would deliver clean burning natural gas supplies to support existing power plant expansion and/or repowering along with supplies for newly constructed generation facilities. Millennium started providing service to the Bowline power plant with over 100 MMcf/d of supply in July of 2010 and has entered into an agreement with Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) to construct a seven mile, 16 lateral to provide the proposed 650 MW CPV Valley Energy Center generation plant in Wawayanda, NY with up to 113 MMcf/d of supply (Fig.2). Providing service to these two plants has begun the step towards the future in assisting the State of New York in its effort to reduce the emission of pollutants while increasing the reliability of electric service to Zones G, H and I. Additionally, Millennium is in the unique position to easily expand its system in Zone G, (Fig. 3) to provide the natural gas infrastructure necessary to support electric generation growth to meet the increased electric demand in Zones G, H, I, J and K.

3 Page 2 of 3 The New York State Transmission Assessment and Reliability Study (STARS) report issued on April 30, 2012 provides analysis and support for the upgrading of particular electric transmission paths that would alleviate electric transmission congestion and provide increased electric transmission capacity to the New York City area, which is one- third of the state s electric load. The primary electric transmission paths identified in the STARS study are shown in Figure 4 (the Millennium system has been included on this figure for illustrative purposes). As shown, the Millennium pipeline system aligns with several of the identified electric transmission paths identified for potential upgrades. Figure 5 highlights two specific proposed electric transmission upgrades: Rock Tavern, NY to Ramapo, NY and Pleasant Valley, NY to Sprain Brook, NY, both presented in yellow. The 345 KV electric transmission line that connects these two potential upgraded electric transmission lines by way of the Indian Point Nuclear facility is presented in red. The Millennium pipeline is presented in green. As shown, the Rock Tavern electric transmission line and the Indian Point connector transmission line both cross the Millennium pipeline. Millennium is prepared to develop natural gas transmission infrastructure in this area to support new generation facilities. Millennium has determined that it can expand its system to receive natural gas supplies from interconnecting natural gas pipelines as well as directly connected gathering systems in either New York or Pennsylvania in such a manner as to be able to deliver an incremental supply of approximately 500 MMcf/d into the Hudson Valley location represented by the circled region in Figure 6. This amount of gas supply is sufficient to support new electric generation facilities with a capacity of more than 3,000 MW. Any generation facility constructed within the target zone shown on Figure 6 is easily connected and supplied by the Millennium mainline system. The 345 KV electric transmission line that crosses Millennium and connects to the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant is only 12.5 miles long and Millennium could easily construct a lateral in the existing electric transmission corridor to supply any generation located along this route. Summary: Although Millennium is not an electric generation or transmission company, it is in a unique position to provide the natural gas transmission infrastructure necessary to deliver natural gas, the low cost, clean burning fuel that can and should support the addition of new electric generation facilities in the Hudson Valley, which are necessary to meet the growing demand in the New York City area. The increase in electricity demand, coupled with the possible closing of some coal and oil- fueled electric generation plants due to the potential increased cost of environmental compliance, along with the fact that 42 percent of the current electric generation plants are more than 40 years old, suggests that the addition of new electric generation facilities is paramount. The construction of new natural gas infrastructure and new electric generation facilities will create local jobs and in turn stimulate the local economies. The use of natural gas as fuel for these electric generation plants will lower electricity costs and the emission of pollutants while providing the necessary electricity to meet the growing demand. Additionally, the ability to power new electric generation facilities in the lower Hudson Valley with natural gas opens up an avenue for the replacement of any electric generation capacity loss that could be experienced in the event that the Indian Point Nuclear Facility is retired. In short, Millennium stands ready to provide the New York infrastructure, with the New York supplies for the generation of New York electricity.

4 Millennium Pipeline Footprint Figure 1

5 Proximity of CPV Valley to Pipeline Figure 2

6 Millennium Pipeline Infrastructure Support Area Figure 3 Secondary Power Plant Development Area Primary Power Plant Development Area

7 Figure 4 STARS Preliminary Transmission Paths

8 Transmission Upgrades Re: Indian Point Figure 5

9 New Generation Facility Target Zone Figure 6