Loudon considers alternative
Author: Vicky Newman
Source: News-Herald
Does $1.50 per gallon for gas at the pump sound unnatural today? That's what compressed natural gas is bringing in Wartburg at the Citizens Natural Gas pump station. Low natural gas prices are prompting some local officials to explore and dream of compressed natural gas vehicles. The city of Loudon/Loudon Utilities Board is crunching numbers and eyeing costs and requirements for converting city vehicles - particularly large diesel vehicles - to burn the alternative fuel. Lynn Mills, LUB manager and city manager, said it appears natural gas could drop to $2 per dekatherm, which translates to even cheaper costs in the coming months. On March 26, LUB approved a natural gas rate of $2.53 per dekatherm, or 91 cents per 100 cubic feet, delivered to customers in April. Mills told board members "that price goes back to the 1980s." Mills is watching natural gas prices closely, especially since visiting Wartburg, where Citizens Gas Utility District opened Tennessee's second compressed natural gas station a little more than a year ago. The Wartburg station has a 33-gallon capacity, serving seven CNG trucks and one public customer. The station presently has the capacity to serve about 12 public customers, but they would need to stagger the time when CNG trucks refuel. The capacity could be increased to about 100 gallons easily, said Bob Patterson, owner of PBG Energy in Knoxville and builder of the station. The station was a step toward increasing CNG infrastructure in Tennessee. As governments adopt incentives to encourage CNG retailers to expand and add more stations nationwide, Tennessee hopes to see progress continue with as many as 10 more stations opening by 2015. Patterson said demand for compressed natural gas has begun to grow swiftly in Tennessee, even though the technology is not new. "(Knoxville Utilities Board) has operated their fleet with compressed natural gas for 30 years," he said. "It is in Memphis and a lot of utilities. There's a station in Nashville and they're building one in Athens. We have contracts for two others in East Tennessee, between Chattanooga and Nashville on I-24 and one close to Johnson City. "We have enough natural gas supply to last 100 years," Patterson said. "This is a great time of transition. The changes will start with fleet vehicles. They've been doing this all over the country with large fleets. About 25 percent of transit buses and garbage trucks are converted to CNG. Now the auto dealers are getting CNG trucks and bi-fuel models that use gas and CNG." Patterson said the best way to convert a fleet of vehicles would be incrementally, starting with a few and then purchasing CNG replacement vehicles straight from the dealer. Retrofits are expensive. Mills said conversion would be possible for all city vehicles, but it would be especially cost effective for the very large vehicles such as utility line trucks, fire engines and garbage trucks. Retrofit costs $7,500 to $15,000, depending on the size and what is required. An additional fuel tank is installed at the back of the vehicle and lines to the engine, which has a converter. It would take time to get all vehicles converted so the project would have to be phased in, Mills said. A refueling station would cost $400,000 to $500,000 depending on the size built. "The mileage is about the same for gasoline or compressed natural gas, so after you convert you could cut gas costs by about 60 percent," Mills said. "When you are talking an average of $25,000 a month for fuel, it could be viable." Mills said municipalities pay about 50 cents less per gallon for fuel than citizens because it is tax free. "Our price for unleaded now is about $3.05. Our last fuel bids were on Feb. 7. The total bid for diesel, regular and low-sulfur unleaded was $23,700. We have to get a load of fuel every two and a half to three weeks," he said. "Our storage capacity is around 5,000 gallons. We get around 200 gallons of diesel and 4,400 unleaded when we fill the tanks." The fueling stations are modular designs that can be easily expanded as the demand for CNG increases. "It just makes sense to grow these stations as storage space is needed," Patterson said. School buses are a natural fit for natural gas, Patterson said. "California did it first for air quality reasons," he said. "It is a safer fuel, it burns clean and you save money." The Loudon County Air Quality Task Force had encouraged Loudon to consider applying for a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation grant for air pollution reduction projects. A total of $5 million was set aside, with individual projects funded up to $250,000. The grants require a 20 percent local match. The deadline for an application was March 30, and Loudon did not apply. However, the LUB is applying for a grant to purchase a hybrid utility vehicle that will cost $240,468. "Hopefully with a grant of $120,468 (50 percent) there will be a local match of $120,468. The hybrid would have a diesel engine, but when it is parked to work on the power lines, the hydraulics of the bucket truck would be powered by a battery, allowing the diesel engine to be powered off, saving fuel and emissions," Mills said. Shannon Littleton, Lenoir City Utilities Board general manager, said LCUB is getting ready to try a hybrid utility vehicle with TVA money. "We talked at the end of last year about changing our fleets to some kind of hybrid to use gas and something else," Littleton said. "We were discussing something electric or hydrogen, but we never discussed compressed natural gas. That's not to say we won't soon. We're open minded and willing to listen. We had talked to the county folks about other clean energy sources, but we had yet to do anything about it." Littleton said he is amenable to alternative fuels and power. "There's got to be an alternative to what we are doing now," he said.
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