BillHustonBlog: Kinder Morgan NED: Biggest freaking compressors I've ever seen!!

Note: After I published this, it was pointed out to me that these data are from the original resource reports 9/2014. There was a major reroute published 12/2014. This sizes, location, and number of these compressors have changed. But in sum, the aggregate HP is still in the same ballpark: 465,000 HP. -- BH

I don't know quite what to make of this, so I am just reporting to you what I've found.

Check out the file called

NED_Pre-Filing_Letter.DOCX
		"Request to implement the Commission's pre-filing procedure for the Northeast Energy Direct Project"

Which is here: http://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/File_list.asp?document_id=14251558

Under Accession Number 20140915-5200, "Application to open a pre-filing proceeding of Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, L.L.C. under New Docket for Tennessee's Northeast Energy Direct Project " under FERC docket PF14-22.

Page 7.

Someone from Franklin NY asked me to look up the air emissions for the proposed Franklin Compressor. It's bad enough-- either 20,500 HP or 30,000 HP, with typical emissions at 100,000 tons per year in Greenhouse gasses (CO2e).

Keep in mind the TOTAL amount of new compression for the entire Dominion New Market project is 33,000 HP over 3 sites at 11,000 HP each. So the proposed Franklin compressor is 3 times the typical big transmission line compressor I've seen.

But then I noticed that the compressors between the Wright (NY) Interconnect and Dracut Mass are the biggest I've ever seen. I about fell over. 3x Titan 250's @ 120,000 HP each. These are the largest commercially made compressors available, and ~10x the size of the typical compressor I've seen (I've looked at many).

120,000 HP happens to be about equal to 90 Megawatts, or the output of a GE90 jet engine found in the largest aircraft, like a Boeing 747 or 777.

So the total compression proposed for the KM NED project is about 480,000 horsepower, which is the equivalent of 4x of the biggest jet engines made.

See the attached graphic.

According to the filed documents, the Kinder Morgan NED would require a total of

8 compressor sites
32k + 20.5k + 30k + 20k + 120k(!!!) + 120k(!!) + 120k(!!) + 23k horsepower
Total horsepower = 485k HP.
All are turbines except the "Market Path Head Station" in Schoharie (pipeline junction) which are reciprocating.

Rough estimates of total GHG emissions for all of these:
Total HP for turbines: 465k HP.
Total Recip HP: 20k
GHG estimates are 100k tpy per 20.5k HP for turbines or 100k/20.5k = 4.9 tons per year per HP. Estimating that recip engines are approximately 2x that = 9.8 tons per year per HP
Total GHG estimates:
465kHP * 4.9 tpy/HP + 20kHP * 9.8 tpy/HP = 2.3 Million tpy + 196k tpy = 2.5M tpy.
2.5 MILLION TONS PER YEAR.
Total GHG emissions for KM-NED = 2.5 MILLION TONS PER YEAR in emissions.

10k tons = coal train 1 mile long
100k tons = coal train 10 miles long
1M tons = coal train 100 miles long.
2.5 M tons = coal train 250 miles long -- from NYC to Rochester.

To put that into perspective, the biggest emitter I've ever seen to date was Dominion Cove Point, which is estimated to be 2.0 M tpy of CO2e in GHG emissions.
Wow / What the Hell?

Where is all this gas coming from?
Going to?

Holy crap people.

I... am... speechless....

Every day I look at these technical documents
I keep finding a bigger monstrosity then I've ever seen before.

To paraphrase Adam Headley (age 10)--

this is just stupid.

--
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be happy and free from suffering :)
-- ancient Buddhist Prayer (Metta)

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