Availability of Natural Gas during Blackout

Sun Aug 17 17:29:01 UTC 2003

> > 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.

This is true as long as no emergency is declared.  If a state of emergency
*is* declared (yes, Nortern Virginia declares a state of emergency for snow
flurries) contract or not, commercial customers get cut if the gas is needed
for residences.

> > 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
getc
>
> 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.

Yes, thats why only small (again sub 65KW) installations make sense.  And
from experience, we have had -22F in Lancaster, PA and our propane genset
started right up.  That the coldest we have on record at any of our sites
though during a utility outage.

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