A natural gas pipeline has come online in South Carolina, serving customers in Charleston, Dillon, Lexington and Marlboro counties.
Columbia-based Dominion Energy Carolina Gas Transmission completed its Charleston Project — the largest expansion in the company’s history.
The project will deliver 80,000 dekatherms per day to customers, or enough natural gas to serve about 73,000 households on a typical winter day, Dominion said.
About 94% of the pipeline’s capacity serves S.C. Electric & Gas customers; the remaining capacity will serve other businesses across the state, the company said in a news release.
The company submitted plans for the $119.3 million project to federal regulators in 2016. Construction began in spring 2017.
Work involved building 55 miles of 12-inch diameter natural gas pipeline from Moore to Chappells; 5 miles of 4-inch natural gas pipeline in Dillon; a new compressor station in Dorchester County; and upgrades to an existing compressor station in Spartanburg County.
The pipeline brings “additional clean, reliable and greatly needed energy to South Carolina,” said Dan Weekley, vice president and general manager for Southern Pipeline Operations at Dominion Energy.
“The Charleston Project is the third major natural gas infrastructure project completed in South Carolina by Dominion Energy since acquiring the former Carolina Gas Transmission in 2015,” he said in the release.
The company said the pipeline will generate an estimated $1.5 million in tax revenue annually for counties along its route. Founded in 1952, Dominion Energy Carolina Gas Transmission operates approximately 1,500 miles of transmission pipelines in South Carolina and Georgia and delivers natural gas to S.C. utility companies and industrial facilities.
Parent company Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Energy is vying for a $14.6 billion merger with Cayce-based SCANA after the failed nuclear project in Fairfield County.
SCE&G owned 55% and state-owned utility Santee Cooper owned 45% of the twin 1,117-megawatt reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear station. Numerous delays, rate increases and construction issues resulted in contractor Westinghouse filing for bankruptcy in April. The owners then abandoned the project in July. Ratepayers had already been shelling out money for the $9 billion spent on the failed project.
