Columbia Transmission: pipe modernisation agreement with FERC

Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC, a subsidiary of Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. and Columbia Pipeline Partners LP (together, ‘CPG’), has filed a customer agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to extend its long-term system modernisation programme.

Columbia Transmission has requested FERC's approval of the customer agreement by 31 March 2016, which will allow critical planning and scoping work to commence in a timely manner.

The filing extends and expands the first-of-its-kind customer agreement, initially approved by the FERC in January 2013.

The programme will be extended three years, until 2020, and will provide for approximately US$1.1 billion of additional investment.

The agreement also expands the scope of facility investments covered by the programme.

"We are pleased to extend our Modernisation Programme, which continues a collaborative partnership with our customers to enhance the safety and reliability of the Columbia Transmission system," said CPG President Glen Kettering. "Further, we believe this agreement is fully consistent with the FERC's recently issued Modernisation Policy Statement."

CPG has invested approximately US$1 billion under the Modernisation Programme over the last three years, placing more than 100 projects into service, including the:

• Replacement of more than 130 miles of bare steel pipelines and wrought iron facilities.
• Installation or upgrading of approximately 116 000 hp of compression, including adding approximately 80 000 hp of compression to its standby fleet.
• Installation of an emerging technology, real-time preventive maintenance monitoring system to more than 80% of its existing compressor fleet.

Investments in the Modernisation Programme have also enabled CPG to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 20 000 tpy.

Edited from source by Elizabeth Corner

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/equipment-and-safety/21122015/columbia-transmission-pipe-modernisation-agreement-with-ferc/