Williams Partners received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval to expand Transco, the nation’s largest natural gas pipeline system, to provide service to a new, gas-fired, power-generation plant in Virginia. The approximately $300 million Transco Virginia Southside Expansion is designed to provide 270,000 dekatherms per day (dth/d) of incremental transportation capacity in Virginia and North Carolina by September 2015.

Federal regulators approved construction of Columbia Gas Transmission’s (Columbia) line MB extension natural gas system modernization project in Baltimore County and Harford County, Maryland. The certificate of public convenience and necessity, issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, instructs Columbia to move forward with the 21.3-mile pipeline and begin construction in 2014.

GE signed a nearly $700 million contract with Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) to bring additional F-class combined-cycle gas turbines, and associated equipment and services, to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. GE’s technology will support SEC’s large, combined-cycle power plants to generate more than 3.8 GW of power and will provide fuel savings and lower emissions. GE’s technology previously has been chosen for SEC’s PP9, PP10, PP11 and PP12 power plants.

Duke Energy Renewables began construction on three utility-scale solar power projects totaling 30 MW in Eastern North Carolina. The 20-MW Dogwood Solar Power Project is located in Halifax County, near Scotland Neck. The company is also building two 5-MW projects, one in Bertie County near Windsor, named Windsor Cooper Hill Solar. The other, Bethel Price Solar, is in Pitt County, near Bethel. Power from these projects will be sold through long-term, fixed price contracts.

The design framework for a California Independent System Operator (ISO) energy imbalance market (EIM) received approval from the ISO board of governors. The EIM will allow western grid operators, known as “balancing authorities”, to voluntarily participate in a real-time energy market that enhances grid reliability and responsiveness, effectively integrates renewable power and saves wholesale energy costs. The ISO’s first EIM partner, PacifiCorp, has been working with the ISO to prepare for implementing the market expected to go live on October 1, 2014.