Operator seeking expansion to gas pipeline serving valley
Kern River Transmission Co., which delivers 80 percent of the natural gas used in the Las Vegas area, is seeking federal approval for an expansion of the similarly named pipeline to increase deliveries to NV Energy.
NV Energy, the investor-owned electric utility serving Nevada, has signed a preliminary agreement for the additional gas capacity, according to a document filed with federal regulators. NV Energy is building a 500-megawatt, gas-fired unit at the Harry Allen power plant 25 miles north of Las Vegas.
NV Energy was preparing a statement on the project.
The so-called Apex Expansion Project would enable the Kern River Pipeline to deliver an additional 266 million cubic feet daily to Southern Nevada. The pipeline already has the capacity to deliver 1.7 billion cubic feet daily. The gas comes from Wyoming and goes to Utah, Southern California and the Las Vegas area.
Williams, the Tulsa, Okla.-based parent of Kern River Transmission Co., plans to boost the capacity of a pair of 36-inch pipelines that collect the gas in Opal, Wyo., and travel as far as California's San Joaquin Valley.
At one spot in central Utah, the parallel pipelines merge into one because of mountainous terrain. Kern River says it plans to complete a second pipeline there to boost capacity by 266 million cubic feet a day.
The pipelines have been in service since 1992.
Doubling the pipeline in central Utah and increasing the compression pressures will allow more than 2.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day to travel through the pipelines to meet growing demand, up from 1.76 billion cubic feet, said Todd Kremer, director of business development for Kern River, a company owned by Des Moines, Iowa-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has decided the pipeline expansion can be accomplished with little environmental damage. FERC will take public comment until May 17, then issue a final environmental impact study this summer.
FERC issued its draft environmental impact statement late Friday, saying pipeline construction "would result in some adverse environmental impacts" in central Utah. However, the impacts can be reduced to "less-than-significant levels" with measures proposed by the company and suggested by FERC, according to the document.
Kern River has pledged to avoid disturbing stream flows when it buries the second pipeline through a 28-mile section of central Utah, said Chris Bias, the company's director of expansion projects.
That will make the construction job harder, he said.
FERC said it will hold hearings on the project April 27 in Bountiful, Utah, and April 28 in Morgan, Utah.
Contact reporter John G. Edwards at jedwards
@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0420. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
