11-04-08 Utilities in the Pacific Northwest will have greater assurance of meeting customers' rising wintertime peaks in natural gas use because of a major expansion project underway at the Northwest's largest underground natural gas storage reservoir, operated by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) in Washington state.
On March 30, 2008, PSE crews finished drilling the last of 10 wells -- completing an expansion project phase that began in June 2007, at the Jackson Prairie Natural Gas Storage Facility in Lewis County. Ongoing work has now shifted to installing new piping and compressors to inject and withdraw natural gas stored underground.

Scheduled for completion in November 2008, the $ 42 mm project will boost the reservoir's natural gas withdrawal capability by 35 % -- from 850 mm cf of natural gas per day to 1.15 bn cfpd.
"Expanding Jackson Prairie will ensure that our growing customer base will have reliable service on even the coldest winter days," said Kimberly Harris, executive vice president and chief resource officer at PSE. "The existing natural gas transportation system, on its own, simply can't deliver enough natural gas from Canada and the Rockies to meet our growing region's peak wintertime daily demands. We'll be able to store and withdraw significantly more natural gas to supplement the regional pipeline system and keep people's homes warm."

After the expansion, Jackson Prairie will be capable of satisfying the natural gas requirements of approximately 1.2 mm households on the most frigid, midwinter days -- or more than one-fourth of the Northwest's total peak demand. The expansion project will increase, by 10 %, the total amount of natural gas available on a peak day -- both from natural gas transportation pipelines and from storage -- to the region's utilities.
Developed in the early 1960s, Jackson Prairie currently can store and redeliver 24 bn cf of natural gas. PSE, which owns the 3,200-acre reservoir jointly with Avista and the Williams Companies, has been steadily increasing thefacility's storage capacity over the past several years. The goal is to reach 30 bn cf of working storage capacity by 2012.

Harris noted that Jackson Prairie not only is instrumental in maintaining the wintertime reliability of the region's natural gas system, but it also stabilizes the price of natural gas for consumers. PSE is able to buy natural gas supply in the summer, when prices tend to be lower, and store it at Jackson Prairie to serve homes and businesses in the winter, when wholesale prices usually run higher.
Washington state's oldest and largest energy utility, with a 6,000-sq-mile service territory stretching across 11 counties, Puget Sound Energy serves more than 1 mm electric customers and 729,000 natural gas customers primarily in the growing Puget Sound region of Western Washington.