Richmond, Virginia-based Dominion Energy, seeking to improve its winter reliability, is planning to go into the liquified natural gas business in the Old Dominion. Dominion Energy Virginia (still technically operating under its original moniker, Virginia Electric and Power Co.) is planning an LNG production, storage, and regasification facility serving two of its large gas-fired power plants located near the state’s southern border with North Carolina.
The utility says the purpose of the project is “to avoid fuel shortages during extreme weather or other supply disruptions or constraints.” Virginia is part of the PJM competitive wholesale electric market, which came near to collapse over the Christmas holiday period last year – known as Winter Storm Elliott – largely because of failures among the pipeline companies that serve electric generating units. Dominion relies on gas for about 40% of its electric generation.
Dominion plans to add onsite LNG storage to serve two large neighboring combined-cycle plants in Greensburg and Brunswick counties. The Greensville plant has a generating capacity of 1,588 MW and the Brunswick plant’s capacity is 1,358 MW. Transco currently serves the two plants, with a 4.3 mile lateral pipeline to the Greensville plant from its interstate pipeline and a 7.3 mile lateral to the Brunswick plant. Transco owns the laterals.
The main operation – liquifying the gas, storing it, and regasifying it as necessary – would take place at the Greensville plant and gas would move when needed to Brunswick through the existing lateral pipe. Constructed on a 20-acre site Dominion Virginia already owns, the LNG plant would include a 25-million gallon LNG storage tank with the ability to liquify about 15 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) and 500 MMcf/d of regasification capacity.
According to a Dominion filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “When operating in liquefaction mode, the project would take approximately 138 days to fill the LNG storage tank. When operating in regasification mode, the project would be able to provide approximately four days of gas supply for both stations operating at full load, or eight days of supply for a single station at full load.”
Dominion asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to eschew jurisdiction over the project under the Hinshaw Exemption in the federal Natural Gas Act. As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit explained in a 2003 case, In 1954 the Congress enacted the Hinshaw Amendment, which ‘‘carves out an exception to FERC jurisdiction for natural and legal persons engaged in the transportation of ‘natural gas received by such person from another person within or at the boundary of a State if all the natural gas so received is ultimately consumed within such State.’’’
The exemption was named for former California Republican Rep. John Carl Hinshaw, who authored it. He served from 1939 to his death in office in 1956.
At its Nov. 16 monthly meeting, FERC unanimously approved Dominion’s request. The LNG project will be subject to a number of state and local regulatory reviews, including the Virginia State Corporation Commission, but not in Washington. FERC Commissioner Mark Christie, a former member of the Virginia commission, lauded the decision. “We are not approving onsite LNG,” he said. “That’s up to the Virginia commission.” Christie said the Dominion project was an interesting approach to improve gas-electric coordination and “we may hear a lot more about it.”
A detailed online search revealed no other instances of projects like what Dominion is proposing. Most of the discussions about using LNG in electric power plants focuses on ship-born LNG. Constellation Energy has long operated an LNG import terminal in Everett, Mass., near Boston, which has supplied the 1,413-MW Mystic gas-fired plant, which Constellation also owns. The LNG has been crucial to keeping the power plant in service during severe winters, when existing residential and industrial customers are first in line for interstate pipeline gas.
Dominion Energy Virginia says it plans to start construction on the project, cost not specified, this year, with operation in 2027.
–Kennedy Maize
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