Switching

Two coal-fired power plants owned by FirstEnergy in southwestern Pennsylvania are scheduled to be closed on Wednesday.

As an option for fleet operators turned off by high up-front costs of switching off of diesel or gasoline, two firms in the West have come up with a leasing alternative for long-haul liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered tractor trailers.

Thanks to abundant shale gas supplies and appliance efficiency gains, a homeowner in Connecticut could save $1,800 per year by switching to natural gas heating from fuel oil, according to a trio of utilities in the state that have launched a campaign to get consumers to switch to gas.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp., whose central operations are in the Marcellus Shale, said Monday it plans to use natural gas to power hydraulic fracturing (fracking) equipment in northeastern Pennsylvania.

The University of Massachusetts is switching the Central Heating Plant at its Amherst campus from oil to a liquefied natural gas system, a project that could provide $2 million of fuel cost savings annually, according to the university’s five-year capital plan. The $1.2 million project, which is going into operations this month, will allow the plant to end its practice of burning oil when winter conditions cause gas curtailments, according to The Massachusetts Daily Collegian. The plant will rely primarily on natural gas from Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northampton Lateral.

Customer fuel-switching, growing gas-fired generation needs tied to more reliance on renewable power and pipeline infrastructure expansions in the western parts of the state have Wisconsin’s major combination utility anticipating a growing role for natural gas, according to the CEO of Wisconsin Energy (WE).

Coal-to-natural gas switching became a live issue for Wisconsin Energy’s major utility, We Energies, with the decision Friday to switch a long-time coal-fired cogeneration facility serving downtown Milwaukee to natural gas. The Valley Power Plant is a 280 MW facility providing steam and electricity.

Trends that surfaced last year indicate “a continued preference for crude oil and liquids-rich gas development over dry gas options,” and are likely to reduce — and possibly reverse — recent domestic dry gas production growth rates, according to a new report from Pace Global.

Even with the likelihood of switching the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along Oregon’s south-central coast to an export facility, a major 1 Bcf/d connecting transmission pipeline project remains active and moving forward, the LNG project manager told NGI last Wednesday.