Sabal Trail pipeline ready for commercial service

LAKE MARY, Fla. – It was a drawn-out battle that often pitted company representatives against a multitude of different opposition groups in Georgia, Florida and Alabama. But in the end, Sabal Trail Transmission LLC accomplished its ultimate goal.

Sabal Trail Transmission, the joint venture of Spectra Energy Partners, NextEra Energy Inc. and Duke Energy, announced Wednesday that it placed its pipeline system and facilities from Alexander City, Ala., to the Central Florida Hub in Kissimmee into commercial service on Monday.

“Sabal Trail has successfully navigated a rigorous environmental permitting process over the past four years while working with landowners and key stakeholders to construct this new pipeline system,” Bill Yardley, president and chairman of the board of Spectra Energy Partners, said in a news release. “With the completion of this project, Florida Power & Light and Duke Energy will realize needed firm natural gas transportation services to meet their power generation requirements. We are pleased to reach this critical milestone and serve our customers in the Southeast U.S.”

Sabal Trail will provide 400,000 dekatherms per day of firm transportation to Florida Power & Light in time for the power company to meet its peak cooling season. Additionally, Duke Energy Florida will accept 300,000 dekatherms of firm delivery daily once its Citrus County combined-cycle natural gas plant is ready to receive natural gas. The 515-mile pipeline will have the capacity to deliver approximately 1.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day to the Southeast U.S. once approved future compression expansions occur.

Houston-based Spectra Energy Partners is one of the largest pipeline master limited partnerships in the United States and connects growing supply areas to high-demand markets for natural gas and crude oil. Its assets include more than 15,000 miles of transmission pipelines, approximately 170 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage, and approximately 5.6 million barrels of crude oil storage.

NextEra Energy is a clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $16.2 billion, approximately 45,900 megawatts of generating capacity and approximately 14,700 employees in 30 states and Canada as of year-end 2016. Headquartered in Juno Beach, Fla., NextEra Energy’s principal subsidiary is Florida Power & Light Company, which serves approximately 4.9 million customer accounts in Florida and is one of the largest rate-regulated electric utilities in the United States.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., Duke Energy is one of the largest energy holding companies in the United States. Its Electric Utilities and Infrastructure business unit serves approximately 7.5 million customers located in six states in the Southeast and Midwest. The company’s Gas Utilities and Infrastructure business unit distributes natural gas to approximately 1.6 million customers in the Carolinas, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Its Commercial Renewables business unit operates a growing renewable energy portfolio across the United States.

More information about the company is available at duke-energy.com. More information about NextEra Energy companies is available at www.NextEraEnergy.com, www.FPL.com or www.NextEraEnergyResources.com. For more information on Sabal Trail, visit www.sabaltrail.com.