LightRoasted
If I may ...
If I may ...
Cove Point LNG has always has the ability to liquefy NG. After the plant shut down its import operations, the facility was used as a storage platform for the NG system. When NG needed to be stored it was pulled from the pipeline, liquefied, and the tanks were filled up. When the system needed NG the process was reversed. At all times in the 70's the plant could have been deemed an import/export facility because it could convert NG to liquid or from liquid to a gaseous state, though its direct mission was to import. Even today, when Dominion finishes their project, it will be able to offload tanker ships as well as fill tanker ships.
When finished, Dominion Cove Point LNG will be completely self sufficient, aka "off-grid" (no SMECO bill). "The Cove Point Liquefaction Project will use two new natural gas-fired turbines to drive the main refrigerant compressors. The waste heat from the gas-fired turbines will be used to generate electric power on-site to meet the power demands of the liquefaction facilities." These will have the capability to provide up to 130 megawatts but with the system design will only need about 80 megawatts for operations. "Dominion states that check valves in some existing piping will be modified to enable bi-directional flow, depending on whether the ships are loading or offloading." In other words, import/export.
As a result, Dominion is in the process of building a big compressor plant at the Cove Point terminal which reverses the LNG process. Rather than importing LNG from ships at the pier, they take gaseous natural gas and compress/cool it for liquefaction (using some of the gas in the process). As part of that project, the pipeline that was originally designed to carry gas from Cove Point to its interconnect with the rest of the Dominion system, has been upgraded to carry gas from the Dominion pipelines down to Covepoint. I don't know whether the new Cove Point facility would be equipped to import gas if need be.
Cove Point LNG has always has the ability to liquefy NG. After the plant shut down its import operations, the facility was used as a storage platform for the NG system. When NG needed to be stored it was pulled from the pipeline, liquefied, and the tanks were filled up. When the system needed NG the process was reversed. At all times in the 70's the plant could have been deemed an import/export facility because it could convert NG to liquid or from liquid to a gaseous state, though its direct mission was to import. Even today, when Dominion finishes their project, it will be able to offload tanker ships as well as fill tanker ships.
When finished, Dominion Cove Point LNG will be completely self sufficient, aka "off-grid" (no SMECO bill). "The Cove Point Liquefaction Project will use two new natural gas-fired turbines to drive the main refrigerant compressors. The waste heat from the gas-fired turbines will be used to generate electric power on-site to meet the power demands of the liquefaction facilities." These will have the capability to provide up to 130 megawatts but with the system design will only need about 80 megawatts for operations. "Dominion states that check valves in some existing piping will be modified to enable bi-directional flow, depending on whether the ships are loading or offloading." In other words, import/export.