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Enron Mail |
Great summary. Sounds like we have plenty to do. Susan, lets talk Monday
and coordinate the law/regulatory stuff. Gracias. DF Jeffery Fawcett 07/21/2000 12:36 PM To: Steven Harris/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Kevin Hyatt/ET&S/Enron@Enron, Julia White/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Drew Fossum/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Mary Kay Miller/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Keith Petersen/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Glen Hass/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Terry Galassini/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Ronald Matthews/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Earl Chanley/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Susan Scott/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Darrell Schoolcraft/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Rod Hayslett/FGT/Enron@ENRON, Alicia Goodrow/Corp/Enron@ENRON, James Centilli/ET&S/Enron@ENRON cc: Lorraine M. Lindberg, Christine Stokes/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, TK Lohman/ET&S/Enron@ENRON, Michelle Lokay/ET&S/Enron@Enron Subject: Caithness Big Sandy LLC TW and Caithness met in Denver this week for the first face-to-face meeting between the parties. The purpose of the meeting was to review the status of the Caithness Big Sandy Project and to establish the next steps for moving the project forward. Caithness Corporation Caithness Corp. is a privately held company based in New York with a variety of business interests. The company is essentially a financial vehicle for private investors. Their energy segment currently owns 1,200 MW of generation through renewable assets in California (geothermal at Coso, wind in Tehachapi and Palm Springs) and a gas fired plant in South Carolina jointly-owned by Florida Power & Light. Big Sandy Project The Big Sandy Project is a proposed power plant to be located near Wickieup, Arizona. The project would be built in two phases- first phase would be 550 MW, with a gas load of approx. 80,000 MMBtu/d, and phase 2 would add another 170 MW for a total of 720 MW with a gas load of 120,000 MMBtu/d. The proposed location of the plant is approximately 40 miles south of Transwestern's pipeline. The take-off point on Transwestern would be at/near valve station #1008, approximately 15 miles downstream of compressor Station #1. The current estimate includes an alignment that follows Arizona state highway 93 south to a location 2 miles southeast of Wickieup in the S/W 4 of Section 5, T15N, R12W, Mohave County, Arizona. There is a 500 KV transmission line owned by WAPA that crosses the property. This line is one of the principal electric transmission systems in the Southwest and extends from the Phoenix area to the Mead substation near Boulder City, NV. I've included a WAPA map below which indicates this line. Also, on the site is a water pipeline owned by the Cyprus Amax Bagdad mine. Water for the plant will come from an encapusulated water table through deep wells. They have currently dug the first two test wells, each capable of 500 cfm. The power plant will require approximately 3,500 cfm of water. In addition to the wells, the plant has several thousand-acre feet of water rights to surface water from the Big Sandy River. The project may also purchase water from the Cyprus Bagdad water pipeline. The chief geological feature of this area is the Big Sandy River and associated wash. The highway 93 roadbed follows along the river. The area includes rolling hills and is principally desert terrain, with some limited agricultural and ranching interests. Wickieup is a very small town with an estimated population of 200. Project Schedule Gas Turbine(s) ordered Westinghouse-Seimens May 2000 Submit Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) August 2000 Arrange financing December 2000 EIS approval March 2001 Construction begins April 2001 Testing begins July 2002 Commercial Operation November 2002 There are two lead agencies for purposes of the project's EIS- the Bureau of Land Management (BLM Kingman office) and the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA). There is only one endangered/threatened species known to be present in the area. Lateral Pipeline Alignment The most critical path item is the alignment of the lateral pipeline. The alignment (lateral pipeline route) must be included in the EIS to be filed next month. Caithness has spoken preliminarily with the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) and the agency is amenable to granting an easement for the pipeline. The problem appears to be in the limited amount of right of way available. Measured from the shoulder to the fenceline, there is only a 70 ft. right of way available for construction. Typically, pipelines require a 100 ft. temporary construction easement and 50 ft. of permanent right of way. Preliminary discussions indicate another problem with this alignment may be the roadway's routing within the wash of the riverbed. If the highway 93 corridor is unsuitable for the pipeline, the second alternative appears to be running the pipeline down the adjacent N/S section line. The problem with this approach is that as the line nears the site, the routing would have to contend with the river bed and wash areas, possibly necessitating deep burial and anchoring. The other route would involve following along the WAPA electric transmission corridor. The only issue there, aside from whether WAPA would permit the pipeline encroachment, is whether there are safety and/or corrosion concerns associated with a high pressure gas line located under a high voltage transmission system. Other Preliminary Project Issues There are other fundamental issues to address. The original concept was to interconnect the proposed Transwestern lateral with El Paso's northern mainline and the yet-to-be-constructed Questar Southern Trails Pipeline, both of which lay adjacent to Transwestern's mainline. Transwestern's original estimate to construct a 16" lateral pipeline and meter station ($20.3MM) was based on the following specifications: 120 MMcf/d 450 psig delivery pressure, 900 psig inlet pressure The meeting resulted in a revised set of specifications that now include a higher 550 psig minimum delivery pressure (new technology Westinghouse turbines). In addition, our understanding is that EPNG's system operates at a pressure 100-150 psig lower than Transwestern's. In order to accommodate EPNG deliveries and to account for the new higher minimum pressure, the design will likely change to a 20" pipeline. Next Steps (responsible party/department) Task Date Due Party/Dept. Pipeline Alignment 1. Estimate to plot lateral pipeline route. 8/4 Matthews/Chanley 2. Engineering services agreement 8/4 Scott/Fawcett 3. Final alignment sheets. 8/25 Matthews/Chanley Misc. Items 1. Confidentiality Agreement 7/24 Scott/Fawcett 2. Data items to Caithness - Form 567 7/26 Matthews - Gallup FERC filing (flow diagram) 7/26 Scott - Sta. 1 and Needles flow/pressure data 7/28 Matthews - Outage reports/maintenance schedules 7/28 Matthews Engineering/Design 1. Original estimate (16" line) to Caithness 7/24 Matthews 2. Revised specifications to Transwestern 7/28 Caithness (T.P.) 3. Revised estimate (20" line) to Caithness 8/4 Matthews/Chanley Other Issues Several key issues need to be addressed concurrently with the pipeline alignment and engineering activities: Task Date Due Party/Dept. Deal Structuring 1. Financing/cost amortization 9/8 Fawcett/Hayslett /Centilli/Goodrow 2. Research interconnect policy (EPNG) 8/4 Scott/Regulatory 3. Research 7© application requirements 8/11 Scott/Regulatory 4. Rates 9/22 Scott/Regulatory /Centilli 5. Research open season requirements 8/18 Scott/Regulatory The above list is certainly not meant to be all-inclusive and a kick-off meeting to discuss the project schedule will be put together shortly. In the meantime, if you have any questions regarding this project, please let me know. Also, please feel free to forward this memo to anyone I've inadvertently left off the distribution. Thanks.
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