A Luzerne County agency likely will be among the first — if not the very first — in Northeastern Pennsylvania to switch to compressed natural gas to fuel a fleet of vehicles.
Stanley Strelish, executive director of the Luzerne County Transportation Authority, told the authority board last week that he has been in discussions with UGI Penn Natural Gas about building a compressed natural gas (CNG) filling station in Forty Fort to fuel a fleet of about 60 vans after a transportation agency consolidation takes place in the county next year.
Plans are in the works for the LCTA to consolidate with the Luzerne/Wyoming Counties Transportation Department and Hazleton Public Transit. The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is pushing for smaller transit systems to consolidate.
The LCTA runs public bus service in northern Luzerne County, HPT runs public bus service in southern Luzerne County, and L/WCTD provides para-transit service to the elderly, children and youth services, and special-needs persons throughout Luzerne and Wyoming counties.
The L/WCTD has about 60 vans that are in poor shape and will need to be replaced over an approximately eight-year period, Strelish said. After researching the options and discussing it with UGI representatives, Strelish said it makes the most sense to go with CNG vans.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, CNG has a high octane rating and excellent properties for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. It is non-toxic, non-corrosive and non-carcinogenic and presents no threat to soil, surface water or groundwater.
“It’s definitely the way to go. It will present a significant savings to the authority,” Strelish said. “The initial cost of the vehicles may be a little higher, but the long-term savings will be significant.”
Strelish also said CNG causes much less wear and tear on an engine than gasoline, so CNG vehicles should last longer than standard gasoline-engine vehicles.
UGI spokesman Joe Swope said a gasoline gallon equivalent (gge) of CNG is about half to two-thirds the cost of gasoline, “a very, very appealing alternative” to gasoline, which is selling now for about $3.30 per gallon.
CNG is selling for about $2.13 per gge in State College right now.
Swope said UGI has been “aggressively starting to pursue fleets” of vehicles in its service area about converting to CNG vehicles in the last six months to a year. He said building a CNG filling station to service a fleet is the most expensive investment.
The only other fleet of CNG vehicles operating with a filling station in UGI’s service area is the River Valley Transit Authority in Williamsport.
“For this to become a widespread venture, there has to be some public policy support up-front to make it really attractive,” Swope said.
Strelish believes federal and/or state government will offer some kind of grant funding to assist with the cost of building a fueling station.
“I’m quite confident that because we sit on some of the largest gas fields in the world, the state will be willing to subsidize it,” he said.
John Krohn, spokesman for Energy In Depth Northeast Marcellus Initiative, said one of the reasons the LCTA has the opportunity to benefit from the CNG option is the development of the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania.
“It appears that for the foreseeable future, natural gas will remain very affordable, not only for a vehicle fuel, but for home heating sources, too,” Krohn said.?
Article source: http://www.cngnow.com/News/Post.aspx?ID=534