System Design in NW Alberta
Media coverage of energy developments often refers to the facilities TransCanada may construct to accommodate new sources of gas in Northwest Alberta. One recent article indicated TransCanada is building a direct pipeline from the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline to Fort McMurray. This is not the case.
To ensure customers have a clear understanding of TransCanada's plans for expansion of the Alberta System, we sat down with Dave Murray, Manager, Mainline Planning West for an overview of the subject.
Dave recently provided TransCanada's Customer Advisory Council with a review of facility expansion scenarios for the Alberta System between 2005 and 2010.
"We are considering a number of facilities in northern Alberta to accommodate the future supplies of gas we expect to see connecting to our system in Northwest Alberta," says Dave. "This gas may include supply from Northeast BC and Northwest Alberta as well as gas supplies coming from the north."
"There will be a need to push these new volumes of gas out of Northwest Alberta through the Alberta System. Added to that push is the pull of demand," explains Dave. "We're going to see demand growth in our Western Canadian markets, including the Fort McMurray area, in addition to continued demand at our major borders: Alberta-B.C., Empress and McNeill."
http://www.transcanada.com/Customer_Express/Update/april_2004/article_4....
Based on the TransCanada studies to date, which look at the most cost-effective way to match the aggregate supply on the system with all those demands, one possibility TransCanada is considering is optimizing the use of currently underutilized portions of the system on the eastern part of the Alberta System. This possibility would see new infrastructure, the North Central Corridor, be built to expand our system to transport the growing throughput requirements. An alternative to the North Central Corridor would be a looping and compression addition program along our existing mainlines on the western part of the system, which TransCanada believes would be more costly to our customers.
Dave offers a couple of cautions. First, TransCanada is not considering a direct pipeline from the terminus of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline to Fort McMurray. "Rather, the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline will be tied into the integrated Alberta System - Northern gas would be effectively pooled with gas received from about 1,000 other receipt points and delivered to about 200 delivery points," says Dave. Second, decisions on facilities like the North Central Corridor are still years away.
There is no commercial link between the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline project and the growth in demand in the Fort McMurray area. "Even if the Mackenzie Gas Project never happens, there will be growth in the demand for natural gas in Fort McMurray," says Dave. "And, similarly, if the Fort McMurray demand for natural gas never increases there will be other natural gas demand growth throughout North America that will be a pull for the Mackenzie Gas project."
When the North Central corridor concept was first introduced in 1999, it had the following attributes:
Transports the growth in supply from the Peace River Project Area to the North and East Project Area
Addresses the growth in Alberta deliveries in the Fort McMurray area
Establishes a plan to ensure the lowest cost by maximizing long term utilization of existing facilities in the North and East Project Area to serve the maximum day delivery at the Empress and McNeill Export Delivery Points
Today, the North Central Corridor continues to form an integral part of TransCanada's long term plans to expand its system on a cost-effective way. TransCanada continues to examine the scope and timing of the North Central Corridor to ensure that this infrastructure is added to the integrated Alberta System in the most effective way possible.
For more information on the North Central corridor see the Alberta System Plan for 2003 or contact Dave Murray at 403.920.2059.
