Last week, I showed that new pipeline capacity is on the way to address three constraints on the eastern gas grid and support the accelerating combined-cycle build I wrote about two weeks ago.
This week, I’ll show that ~5.2 Bcfd of pipeline capacity will reach the constrained Southeast by year-end 2029,1 while new gas-fired power plants there will likely burn only ~1.1 Bcfd. But enabling demand growth is only part of the point: Southeast utilities contracted for this capacity ahead of their need for new gas supply, to reduce costs and fill shortfalls in their existing firm transportation portfolios.
How much pipeline capacity is coming online?
Six major Southeast-focused projects will add ~7 Bcfd of pipeline capacity, mostly backstopped by the region’s power utilities (Figure 1). But only ~5.2 Bcfd of that is effective capacity2 into the region, for two reasons:
MVP Boost terminates at Transco Station 165, so its ~600 MMcfd only reaches Southeast markets via Transco or MVP Southgate.
SoNat’s ~1.3 Bcfd South System Expansion 4 sources gas from TGP’s Mississippi Crossing project, so it doesn’t add supply into the region.
Figure 1 | Pipeline projects into the Southeast and capacity by shipper