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National Grid Files Implementation Plan in Response to PSC Order

Oct 21, 2019

MELVILLE, N.Y. and BROOKLYN, N.Y. – In response to the New York State Public Service Commission’s order to reconnect customers, National Grid filed an implementation plan today that describes the process the Company is taking to safely connect a limited number of inactive accounts to its natural gas system. The filing also outlines in greater detail contingency plans the Company is taking this winter to address the expected curtailment of firm natural gas supplies announced by a major transmission company that supplies utilities in the Northeast, including National Grid.

“Once we received the order, we immediately activated an implementation plan to reconnect natural gas service to a limited number of applicants,” says John Bruckner, president of National Grid New York. “The first objective of this plan was to contact all applicants outlined in the order.  Once contact is made with each of these applicants, the Company’s goal is to connect them within two weeks after they confirm they have secured the essential records such as permits, pressure testing and building certificates, and are ready to accept service. And we have since made steady progress on the number of applicants we’ve successfully contacted, scheduled appointments with and reconnected to the system.” 

The Implementation Plan filing outlines the commitment to re-connect all residential and small commercial inactive accounts previously denied service after May 15. The filing also includes connecting all single-meter, non-heating accounts in multi-unit apartment buildings, given this segment’s minimal gas capacity requirements. The Plan stays within the gas capacity range National Grid committed to in response to the order.  The Company will carefully monitor the connections in each of these categories and adjust accordingly should it determine it can no longer connect additional customers because of supply constraints or other operational considerations’

“As we’ve said from the beginning, should additional supply become available, we will re-visit each application outside of the original criteria to determine whether or not we’re able to connect any other additional customers to our system without jeopardizing the safety, reliability and integrity of gas supply for our existing 1.8 million customers,” says Bruckner. “And we’ll continue to assess this going forward.”

Where are the supplies coming from to re-connect these customers?

The filing also outlines how the Company plans to expand its existing innovative demand response and nationally recognized energy efficiency programs to reduce overall energy use and help create the additional capacity required to serve these customers. These programs are designed to reduce current customers’ demand during winter peaks and increase the gas system load availability by promoting off-peak usage through financial incentives. As part of this, the Company will be taking the unprecedented action of contacting large firm customers who were previously “interruptible” customers and incentivizing them to go back to non-firm service.  These are customers who could activate a back-up alternative fuel system, generally oil, to reduce gas load during winter peak hours.

“While these unprecedented measures will provide some ability to connect this relatively small set of applicants and customers in the short-term, we still need additional, long-term and firm supplies of natural gas,” added Bruckner.  “Because of this underlying supply issue, the service connection restrictions currently in place must remain in effect for all other customers who’ve requested new or expanded service.” 

Implementation Plan filing also describes natural gas contingency plans for this winter

As peak demand continues to grow, the Company’s ability to safely serve existing customers is threatened by the growing supply imbalance, as the Company is increasingly forced to rely on temporary, unsustainable solutions to meet customers’ demands on the coldest days of the winter.

The recent announcement by a transmission pipeline company regarding constraints on its existing interstate pipeline network that feeds into the Company’s distribution system further exacerbates the downstate supply challenge. Because of this potentially significant supply curtailment to the downstate region, the Company’s contingency planning and operations will be entirely focused on ensuring adequate supplies to serve current customers.  To address the curtailment of these gas supplies, the Company filed details on several short-term solutions like portable compressed natural gas stations and competing with other utilities to add a higher than usual percentage of gas supply from commodity markets.

“Again, these are not permanent solutions to meet peak day demand requirements to ensure system reliability for National Grid’s existing 1.8 million customers,” continued Bruckner.  “We’ll continue to keep the NYPSC updated on these critical issues and work with all parties to address these important supply constraint and customer connection issues.”

 

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