Availability of Natural Gas during Blackout

David Lesher wb8foz at nrk.com
Sun Aug 17 17:05:40 UTC 2003


Speaking on Deep Background, the Press Secretary whispered:
> 
> 
> There are a couple of problems with Natural Gas generators:
> 
> 1. It takes an aweful lot of pressure to get a NG engine up past enough HP....

True; you need to engineer well. And not all sites will have a sufficent
main. 

> 2. In times of weather emergencies, snow and excessive cold, the gas
> companies routinely shut down gas flow to non-residential areas 

This is a contract issue; Commercial customers often get better rates
for being 'cutable'... but you need to assure the generator is not one.

> On the other hand, LNG in tanks is a bit more reliable in the snow if you
> have a large enough tank to provide pressure during cold whether and to get

LNG tanks for any big installation will be BIG. You'll have to
pay to keep all the LNG in stock. Propane has another issue --
it can get too cold for it to vaporize, leaving you really SOL.




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