will natural gas work after 2000

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will natural gas work with one of these new ventlis stoves

-- dord (vo@ice.com), June 16, 1999

Answers

Natural gas OR propane. Got ours at Lowe's for around $160.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 16, 1999.

Sorry, I just discovered that your question was WILL there be natural gas? I'd go with propane, depending on your ability to have a tank (apt, townhouse, rural). Natural gas availability was far too risky for us to be willing to depend upon, we're using the heater as a supplement to wood burners anyway.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), June 16, 1999.

If you look at the Emergency Managers Association website, there is a post by an EM from RapiD City (Fargo? Mitchel?) in the Dakotas that mentioned that after worrying about electricity in his city, he then needs to worry about there being electricity from the Dakotas all the way down to Oklahoma since most people heat with natural gas in his city. You see while the gas pipelines have back-up and UPS on all the metering and controls, the pumps to drive the natural gas are 10,000 hp electric motors.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.

Now, I'm not saying this has anything to do with Y2K, but... <:)=

PORT HURON, Mich., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- At about 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15, SEMCO ENERGY GAS COMPANY experienced a problem in part of its Battle Creek system.

The problem caused some residential pilot lights to increase. We believe that, as a result, 39 fires were reported to Battle Creek emergency personnel. Reportedly, two people were treated for smoke inhalation at the scene of the fires, and required no further medical assistance. No other personal injuries were reported.

So far, company officials have investigated 25 of the 39 fire claims. The 25 investigations have revealed that 14 homes had no damage; six homes had damage to their furnaces only; three homes had damage to their furnaces and water heaters and two homes were destroyed.

Customers have been advised to contact their insurance company to work with SEMCO ENERGY's claims representatives on damage repairs.

As a precaution, gas company personnel turned off gas supply to approximately 1,000 homes. Gas company crews are now restoring service to customers. Expectations are that all customers will have service restored within three days.

Our preliminary investigation has determined that the problem was caused by a combination of human error and an error in the map of a distribution line. The investigation, in cooperation with state fire marshals and the Michigan Public Service Commission, is continuing.

SEMCO ENERGY GAS COMPANY distributes regulated natural gas to more than 250,000 customers in Michigan. It is one of two subsidiaries of SEMCO ENERGY, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMGS). The diversified energy services and infrastructure company also owns SEMCO ENERGY VENTURES, which acquires and operates companies involved in gas engineering and quality assurance services, pipeline construction services, propane distribution, intrastate pipelines and natural gas storage. SOURCE SEMCO ENERGY GAS COMPANY

Copyright 1999, PR Newswire

-- Sysman (y2kboard@yahoo.com), June 16, 1999.


thank you KEN you answered my question.

-- dord (vo@ice.com), June 16, 1999.


Ken:

re: 10,000hp electric motors, the sketchy info I have from my Natural Gas Supplier says that the pumps that "repressurize" the flow are powered by natural gas generators. The pipeline itself is essentially off-the-grid.

In other words; they tap off the pipeline itself (which is pressurized) to run the Generators that run the Pumping Stations.

But of course, this is just what I was told. I don't know for sure.

and of course, I did not answer the original question posted, sorry, I just sort of commented on the "subject"

-- Plonk (realaddress@hotmail.com), June 17, 1999.


I know Cooper Industries made huge natural gas compressors which was an internal combustion engine in which some cylinders burn natural gas and the remaining cylinders act as compressors. The intake air filters were the size of a small office.

-- George Anderson (georgea@uvonics.com), June 17, 1999.

Well I assume that the Emergency Manager knew what he was talking about. I mentioned this to a friend of mine in the power industry, used to work at an electric utility, now works on designing sub-stations. We both thought that, "hey, a power source is right there, natural gas, burn that in a turbine to power the pumps". Well we were wrong. Think of the expense of the turbine, also gas turbines have a lot more maintanance problems than an electric motor and electricity is dirt cheap. He confirmed this in an e-mail. "I forgot to mention this last night;... at the IEEE meeting in Lincoln, Thurs, I met an EE w/ a utility that serves a no. of gas pipeline compressor stations; he said battery/UPS back up on the process controls "they absolutely need to know pressures, flow, temps, etc @ the monitoring point; but when we got to the next point of conversation I cried (within myself) WHAT PROCESS! "the pumps" I said, "are certainly engine driven by burning natural gas...yes?" Negative; comes the gentlemanly reply...they are 10,000 HP electric. (I don't think the battery will pull the compressor for very long.)"

Now I'ld like to point out that if the electricity goes down on 1/1/00 or some other date due to Y2K, certianly the priority will be to power up natural gas, water, and sewer systems first.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 17, 1999.


Forgot to mention. I'm sure that this is just one method and is most likely dependant on the price of electricity and availability. I'm certian that in some locations the recipocating or turbine self-powering systems would be the way to go if the costs are too high for guaranteed electricity. Apparently in the midwest (ND, SD, NE ,KS, OK) area the electric pumps are common, and this is where my elderly parents live, hence my interest in the subject.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 17, 1999.

If natural gas goes down, it will be one heck of a problem getting it turned back on. Several years ago a prankster turned off the natural gas to all of the 5000 residents in our town. PG&E had to bring in workers from 200 miles away to go door to door and turn off the valves in every home. After they turned on the gas, they had to go door to door and turn on the gas and light all the pilot lights. It was days before everyone got their gas back on. This was for a very small town. Just think what would hapen in large cities or if an entire state goes down. It is going to be a long cold winter.

-- Homeschooling Grandma (mlaymon@glenn-co.k12.ca.us), June 17, 1999.


Ken:

I live in the Midwest too, hence my interest in the subject as well.

I will have to look into this further, thanks for the heads up.

(time to buy a couple of hundred pound propane tanks for the NG/LP generator that charges my batteries)

-- Plonk (realaddress@hotmail.com), June 18, 1999.


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