Gas disruptions still possible for industrial customers
Businesses using natural gas may be cut short if cold weather arrives, utility says
FortisBC customers are using 15 per cent less natural gas than usual, which is helping ease supply disruptions caused by the spectacular rupture of Enbridge’s major transmission pipeline north of Prince George on Oct. 9.
Major industrial customers could still be cut short if colder weather arrives, Fortis warned Thursday, although Enbridge has repaired the 91-centimetre pipe and just received the National Energy Board’s permission to increase pressure on the line to 85 per cent.
“It really gets time-dependent and weather-dependent as we get into December and mid-January,” said Doug Stout, Fortis’ vice-president of market development and external relations. “That’s usually when we get our coldest weather.”
Stout said a combination of warmer-than-usual November weather and conservation efforts contributed to the drop in gas use.
Industrial users that can switch fuels, such as cement plants and pulp mills, have done so, he said.
Some power plants in Washington and Oregon that would normally run at this time of year are not because natural gas prices spiked following the Enbridge outage, Stout said, which also helps ease pressure on the system here.
Fortis CEO Roger Dall’Antonia said the utility has also increased gas purchase son its southern system .“While the risk has decreased, it’s still present until the (Enbridge) pipeline returns to normal service,” he said in a news release.
Fortis is still not getting as much natural gas as it would normally expect from Enbridge’s transmission system at this time of year, and a prolonged period of colder weather could still leave industrial customers short, Dall’Antonia said.
For the moment, however, Stout said Fortis’ storage facilities — the liquefied natural gas facilities in Delta and on Vancouver Island and underground storage it has in Washington and Oregon — are full, “which is where we should be at this time of year.”
The situation is better than it was a week ago, when Fortis warned that a drop in temperature below seasonal norms that lasted several days would cause the utility to dip into the stored gas that it holds.
Stout said Fortis has been paying more to buy natural gas for its customers during the disruption, but it will be December before the utility submits its next interim rate application to the B.C. Utilities Commission that will spell out how much the interruption will cost.
At this point, B.C. Hydro doesn’t expect that it will face increased demand for electricity from people switching to electric heaters as they turn down thermostats on gas furnaces.
“Additional heating load will likely be offset by a reduction in electricity use from large industrial customers as a result of their natural gas restrictions,” Hydro spokeswoman Mora Scott said in an emailed statement.
However, the electric utility is in contact with Fortis and “monitoring the situation closely.”