Yankee Gas Services Co. said it has decided that its Waterbury, CT, operations center is the preferred site for construction of a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and production facility. Part of the Northeast Utilities (NU) system, Yankee said it is proposing to build a state-of-the-art LNG plant to ensure a secure and reliable supply of natural gas to meet the growing energy demands of current and future customers throughout Connecticut.

The proposed LNG project was first announced earlier this year in the company’s rate application to the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC). The company said the project will potentially provide a major economic boost to the city of Waterbury. The size and cost of the project have not been determined.

“This project is vital because it provides another in-state gas supply that reduces our dependence on the interstate pipelines, especially during peak winter heating demand periods,” said Dennis E. Welch, president of Yankee Gas. “This new supply source is also strategically important to meeting the state’s increasing energy demands, now and in the future. It allows us to buy gas when prices are lower in the summer, for example, and deliver it to our customers in the winter, when both demand and prices are higher. That makes this project so much more important, because it gives us greater control and diversity of our gas supply.

“Waterbury is our preferred site for several reasons. Operationally, it’s the best site because of our proximity to the interstate pipelines,” Welch continued. “It allows us to deliver the gas from this proposed plant and displace interstate pipeline gas for delivery to other Yankee distribution systems elsewhere in the state, thanks to the interconnection of all three interstate pipelines with Yankee’s Waterbury system. We also have a vested interest in the city’s renewal, as Waterbury represents our largest customer base.”

Yankee Gas said it will hold a public forum to help educate the community about the proposed project. Timing for this forum will be determined once project details are finalized. Yankee Gas currently operates a regional work center on Eagle Street in Waterbury. Yankee once operated four smaller LNG facilities in the state, one of which was at its Waterbury work center. The facility was installed in 1974 and retired in 1991. Northeast Utilities also has experience planning large-scale LNG facilities. It proposed to build a 2 Bcf LNG storage and vaporization plant in Wells, ME, in the mid 1990s, but the project ended up being scrapped in favor of capacity on the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System.

Yankee said its proposed plant would be a state-of-the-art facility that meets all federal and state code requirements and includes several safety and security features including electronic surveillance and extensive leak detection and fire protection technologies. Once all approvals and permits are secured, the company estimated the construction would take approximately three years to complete.

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