Natural Gas Infrastructure In New England; New Solar Energy Fees In California -- January 28, 2016

Natural Gas -- The Road to New England

 

From EIA, the natural gas pipeline network in New England. The projects that came on-line in late 2015 or early 2016:

• The Rockies Express Pipline (REX) reversal project had added westbound capacity to flow natural gas to the Midwest in 2014. In late 2015, Texas Eastern Transmission Company’s (Tetco) OPEN project added 550 million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of pipeline takeaway capacity out of Ohio.
• Columbia Gas Pipeline's East Side Expansion, a 310 MMcf/d project that flows natural gas produced in Pennsylvania to Mid-Atlantic markets.
• Tennessee Gas Pipeline's Broad Run Flexibility Project, a 590 MMcf/d project originating in West Virginia that moves natural gas to the Gulf Coast states.
• Tetco’s Uniontown-to-Gas City project flows up to 425 MMcf/d of natural gas produced in the Marcellus region to Indiana.
• Williams Transcontinental Pipeline's Leidy Southeast project provides additional capacity to take Marcellus natural gas to Transco's mainline, which extends from Texas to New York. From there, the natural gas serves Mid-Atlantic market areas as well as the Gulf Coast.

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Solar Energy -- The Road To Southern California

From the Los Angeles Times:

Under the decision, new solar customers would face a one-time charge, what the commission calls “a reasonable interconnection fee,” to tie into the electric grid. The commission estimates the fee would range from $75 to $150 per solar customer.

In addition, rooftop solar customers would pay a fee estimated at 2 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity used from the utility companies, no matter how much power their solar systems generate. This fee would amount to about $6 more a month for the average solar user.

Utilities also would place new solar customers on time-of-use rates, which rise during periods of high electricity demand.

Solar owners would continue to receive a dollar-for-dollar exchange, or retail value, for the electricity they produce in excess of what they use from the power company each month. But on an annual basis, that benefit gets reduced to a wholesale value for any electricity generated in excess of what the solar owner consumed.