SAN FRANCISCO, June 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company began "pulling" 6,400 feet of high-pressure natural gas transmission pipeline under the Empire Cut River in the California Delta. The 6.4-mile infrastructure improvement project is part of PG&E's aggressive $2.8 billion capital investment plan for 2007 in order to ensure high quality, safe, reliable and environmentally sensitive utility services for more than 15 million northern and central California residents.
"This important project provides increased reliability to PG&E's critical natural gas infrastructure and protects our backbone transmission system from any potential future levee failures in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta," said Bob Howard, PG&E's vice president of gas transmission and distribution. "The project also provides significant cost protections for PG&E customers, as an ill-timed levee failure during a cold snap would prevent PG&E's use of stored natural gas -- a source of up to 25 percent of our customers winter needs."
Currently, PG&E's Line 57B is the sole gas transmission pipeline that transports gas between the McDonald Island underground storage field and the backbone transmission system. The 19-mile pipeline was installed in 1974 using open cut trench construction techniques across all surface lands, levees and river crossings. While in good operational condition, Line 57B currently crosses an area of the Sacramento River Delta that is the subject of increasing concerns about the stability of the aging Delta levee system.
PG&E studies have shown that should there be a potential levee breach, destruction of Line 57b would have a devastating impact on northern California's economy, with the cost of replacement gas ranging from $150 million to $1 billion.
PG&E's $56.9 million infrastructure improvement project will provide a second path called Line 57C, for gas from McDonald Island to reach the backbone and is expected to be operational by November of 2007. Line 57C's 6.4 miles of 24-inch pipeline will travel a different route, enhancing the reliability of critical supplies from the McDonald Island storage field. Line 57C is being constructed at a depth of 100 feet below the river crossings to provide maximum protection from any possible events including future levee failure.
PG&E injects natural gas into its storage fields during the late spring, summer and early fall when prices are lowest and withdraws gas during the cold winter months when customer demand is highest. McDonald Island, located ten miles west of Stockton, is the largest of PG&E's three underground natural gas storage facilities. The others include Pleasant Creek near Woodland and Los Medanos near Concord/Pittsburg.
PG&E currently maintains and operates more than 40,123 miles of natural gas distribution pipelines and 6,136 miles of transmission pipelines to serve more than 4.2 million northern and central California customers.
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