Has Sabal Trail been shut down for a week? Its FERC-required online reports seem to say so, while Gulfstream and FGT numbers jumped up that same day. Read to the end for something even more interesting.

2017-11-13, Operationally Available Capacity

While Cap stays about the same 789 million dekatherms per day (MDTH/day), Nom drops from around 186 on November 13th to zero or less on November 14th, and stays zero for a week; still zero this morning.

2017-11-14, Operationally Available Capacity

What’s Nom? Apparently nominated gas volume, as in what the pipeline company proposes to ship to its customers; see:

Shippers inject or withdraw natural gas and are responsible for keeping the difference between actual and nominated gas volumes within the agreed on tolerance levels (5 to 10 percent of nominated volume, but flows should not exceed the maximum daily quantity). Balancing is performed both daily and monthly. Negative imbalances — those occurring when a shipper withdraws more gas than it injects — are subject to penalties.
Source: Development of Natural Gas and Pipeline Capacity Markets in the United States, by Andrej Juris.

That explains the percentages in front of the nom numbers.

See also FERC, PR, 2015-04-16, FERC Approves Final Rule to Improve Gas-Electric Coordination, about Order No 809, which includes details about the gas purchase, nomination, and use process. And see FERC, Standards for Business Practices for Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines 16 October 2015, Item G-1: FERC Adopts NAESB Standards Version 3.0, Scheduling Processes of Interstate Natural Gas Pipelines and Public Utilities Order No. 587-W | Instruction Manual | Sample Tariff.

Gulfstream jumps up

Meanwhile, Williams Company’s Gulfstream numbers, for its Station 100 MP 0.1, show:

That’s a sudden jump up of about 216,000 from November 13th to 14th, continuing at about that lavel.

FGT jumps up

Looking at Energy Transfer’s Florida Gas Transmission numbers for the market area, All Market Delivery Points:

That’s a sudden jump from zero to about 1,400,000 in Total Scheduled Quantity (Delivery). Adding Gulfstream’s jump of about 216,000, that’s an increase of about 1,616,000. Why did FGT and Gulfstream increase so much the same day Sabal Trail apparently stopped delivering?

FSC still running?

Florida Southeast Connection is listed in FERC’s Required Filers under Interstate Pipelines under the Natural Gas Act XLS updated 07/28/2017. However, while that spreadsheet contains links to actual capacity information from Sabal Trail, FGT, and Transco, the link for FSC just goes to NextEra’s home page.

With some digging around, I found it: Florida Southeast Connection Informational Postings. Interestingly, there seems to have been no change in FSC’s operationally available or nominated capacity numbers since November 13th. Is FSC getting its gas from FGT and Gulfstream?

The plot thickens

Even more interesting, look at Sabal Trail’s Unsubscribed Capacity:

2017-11-13, Unsubscribed Capacity

That’s a sudden jump of 300,000 dekatherms per day (DTH/day), and it stays up.

2017-11-14, Unsubscribed Capacity

Sabal Trail’s Customer Index shows only two customers: Duke Energy and FPL. Duke’s “For Transportation, Max Daily Quantity (Dth)” is 300,000. That’s exactly the same number as the jump in Sabal Trail’s Unsubscribed Capacity. And in the Index of Customers, Duke shows for “Contract Primary Term Expiration Date”: “10/15/2017”. That’s thirty days before November 14th.

That’s the same Duke Energy that announced in August that it’s building a 75 megawatt solar farm in Hamilton County, Florida and “nine or more” others like it. Only two 75 megawatt solar plants would produce more power than Duke’s methane-burning Suwannee Power Plant. This is also the same Duke Energy that has been building solar farms for years in North and South Carolina.

I suppose Sabal Trail’s apparent drop to zero gas through its shiny new pipe could be something mundane like a leak that it said wouldn’t happen.

But did you lose Duke as a customer, Sabal Trail?

And has Duke finally seen the sunlight in Florida?

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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