Williams Cos. Inc. placed the Virginia Southside Expansion segment of its Transco natural gas pipeline into service to fuel electric power generation in Virginia and meet higher distribution demand in North Carolina, the company said Sept. 1. Transco is largest volume, fastest-growing interstate gas pipeline system. Its capacity serves the equivalent of more than 50 million North American households.

Virginia Southside Expansion cost about $300 million and provides 270,000 dekatherms per day of incremental transportation capacity. There are about 100 miles of new, 24-inch pipeline running from the Transco mainline in Pittsylvania County, Va., and ending in Brunswick County, Va. It runs through Halifax, Charlotte and Mecklenburg.

The majority of the line is parallel to Transco’s existing pipeline alongside a utility corridor. Transco also added more than 21,000 horsepower of compression at Station 165 in Pittsylvania County.

The Virginia Southside Expansion is part of $4.8 billion in Transco growth projects that Williams plans to bring into service between 2015 and 2017. Later this year, the Leidy Southeast Expansion will be placed in full service, the company said.

There are 15 projects in 10 eastern states that will serve power generation, industrial and local distribution customers. They will increase Transco’s system capacity by more than 57%.

Other major Transco projects Williams placed into service in 2015 include the Rockaway Delivery Lateral, the Northeast Connector, Mobile Bay South III Expansion and the Woodbridge Delivery Lateral.

Williams Cos. Inc. is based in Tulsa, Okla.