MORGANTOWN – Hope Gas has asked the state Public Service Commission for its OK to build a new 30-mile pipeline from Wadestown in western Monongalia County eastward to the edge of Morgantown and then northwest to a site near Osage.
Hope proposes the project to meet increased demand in the Morgantown area, it said in its Friday filing seeking a certificate of public convenience and necessity for the project. “The Project is needed for Hope to maintain reliable natural gas service to its existing customers in the Morgantown area, and is not being undertaken to specifically serve a new customer or new customer project.”
All the dollar figures in the public copy of the filing are redacted and referred to as confidential. But Hope says that in this filing it is not seeking to change any rates or impose any surcharges. It would recover costs in future base-rate and purchased gas adjustment proceedings.
Hope is seeking a PSC order by June 18, 2024. It says it will begin construction no later than Nov. 1, 2024, to fit within narrow legal windows for certain tree clearing activities, and in order to have the new facilities come into service by Nov. 1, 2025 – the beginning of that winter’s heating season.
Additional restoration and cleanup would continue to the second quarter of 2026.
Hope projects the project to generate about 600 construction jobs, “the majority of which will be West Virginia based labor.”
Spelling out the background for the project, Hope says it serves about 112,000 customers in 35 counties. Regarding Morgantown, its “economic growth and necessity for reliability has increased the need for Hope’s gas sales and transportation services.”
The new line would begin at Hope’s interconnect with a Columbia Gas line near Wadestown. Using new and existing Hope right of way, it would run 25 miles to the western edge of Morgantown to connect with other proposed Hope facilities (a measurement and regulation station called Black Night) west of I-79 and Harmony Grove. Hope says about 5.5 miles of that right of way is in northern Marion County.
From Black Night, the line would use existing and new third-party rights of way to go five miles northwest of Granville to a station called Mineral northwest of Osage.
Hope notes that about 14.5 miles of the project is parallel to existing Hope right of way or to other lines, to allow for grouped utilities and making the most of an existing corridor. “This route was selected considering proximity to homes and buildings, topography suited for the size of the pipeline, sensitive resources and the associated crossings, and tie-in locations at Wadestown, Black Knight, and Mineral.”
The project would include 30 miles of 16-inch diameter steel gas line and “uprating” of 5.6 miles of existing 12-inch line to accommodate the increased pressure and new gas supply.
Email: dbeard@dominionpost.com
