Utilities in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, all anticipating rapid growth in electricity demand through the 2030s, have ambitious plans for renewables but are acknowledging that solar and offshore wind will need to be backed up by a lot more natural gas-fired generation. Fortunately, the new Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and planned expansions to it and the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) system are providing utilities in the three-state region with enhanced access to Marcellus/Utica-sourced natural gas, albeit at premium prices to gas users closer to that production. In today’s RBN blog, we continue our look at rising demand for electricity and gas in Virginia and the Carolinas with a review of what the largest utilities there are planning.
For many years, gas-fired power plants, gas distribution utilities and other gas consumers in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina depended almost entirely on natural gas piped up from the Gulf Coast on Williams’s Transco system. Then came shale, as we say, including seemingly limitless volumes of natural gas from the Marcellus/Utica play in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. In short order, parts of the Gulf-Coast-to-Northeast Transco system (green line in Figure 1) and a number of other previously northbound-only pipelines were rejiggered to allow increasing amounts of gas to flow south as well. Some new southbound pipes were built too, including the 303-mile, 2-Bcf/d MVP project from northern West Virginia to southern Virginia (light-blue line), which finally came online in mid-June after protracted regulatory, legal and legislative battles.
Figure 1. MVP, Transco and Other Selected Gas Pipelines. Source: RBN
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