Speaking on Deep Background, the Press Secretary whispered:
There are a couple of problems with Natural Gas generators:
1. It takes an aweful lot of pressure to get a NG engine up past enough HP....
True; you need to engineer well. And not all sites will have a sufficent
main.
2. In times of weather emergencies, snow and excessive cold, the gas
companies routinely shut down gas flow to non-residential areas
This is a contract issue; Commercial customers often get better rates
for being 'cutable'... but you need to assure the generator is not one.
On the other hand, LNG in tanks is a bit more reliable in the snow if you
have a large enough tank to provide pressure during cold whether and to get
LNG tanks for any big installation will be BIG. You'll have to
pay to keep all the LNG in stock. Propane has another issue --
it can get too cold for it to vaporize, leaving you really SOL.
> 2. In times of weather emergencies, snow and excessive cold, the gas
> companies routinely shut down gas flow to non-residential areas
This is a contract issue; Commercial customers often get better rates
for being 'cutable'... but you need to assure the generator is not one.
This is true as long as no emergency is declared. If a state of emergency
*is* declared (yes, Nortern Virginia declares a state of emergency for snow
flurries) contract or not, commercial customers get cut if the gas is needed
for residences.
> On the other hand, LNG in tanks is a bit more reliable in the snow if
you
> have a large enough tank to provide pressure during cold whether and to
getc
LNG tanks for any big installation will be BIG. You'll have to
pay to keep all the LNG in stock. Propane has another issue --
it can get too cold for it to vaporize, leaving you really SOL.
Yes, thats why only small (again sub 65KW) installations make sense. And
from experience, we have had -22F in Lancaster, PA and our propane genset
started right up. That the coldest we have on record at any of our sites
though during a utility outage.