STUDY: Conversion of fleet a possible counter to rising energy costs.

By ERIC LIDJI
Petroleum News

Published: August 23rd, 2010 08:44 PM
Last Modified: August 23rd, 2010 08:45 PM

The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities is studying whether Alaska would benefit economically and environmentally by using natural gas instead of diesel and gasoline to fuel the more than 7,500 vehicles the state owns.


The Division of Statewide Equipment Fleet plans to spend up to $65,000 on a study, due by the end of the year, that could lead to a compressed natural gas pilot program.

Like the name suggests, compressed natural gas, or CNG, is highly pressurized methane, reduced to a fraction of its original volume and stored in special pressurized containers.

CNG can be used as a transportation fuel in special engines.

The Alaska Sustainable Energy Act passed this year mandated the study. The legislation described fleet conversion as a possible short-term solution for rising energy costs in Alaska and paired it with a policy for the state to consider long-term energy costs when buying vehicles and equipment.

The study will look at CNG programs in North America to gauge the pros and cons from an environmental, economic and technical standpoint.

Some of those issues are obvious.


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A limited number of filling stations in Alaska could service a large percentage of state and municipal vehicles. Many villages, though, would need their own stations to serve fleets of only a few vehicles.

While natural gas could have environmental benefits compared to diesel and gasoline, Alaska natural gas supplies are stretched by residential and commercial use, electric generation and liquefied natural gas exports. However, the large and stable demand offered by state vehicles could help justify a pipeline from the North Slope, one possible solution for replacing the diminishing natural gas reserves in Cook Inlet.

Also, CNG in remote villages would bear the cost of getting the fuel out there.


CHECKING OUT UTAH

Alaska's request for proposals issued on Aug. 10 specifically mentions looking at a new program in Utah.

Utah offers tax credits, grants and loans for people who buy CNG or other alternative fuel vehicles or convert vehicles to run on alternative fuels. The state also let those vehicles use multiple-passenger highway lanes regardless of the number of passengers in the car. Salt Lake City offers free parking for alternative fuel vehicles.

More relevant for the Alaska study, though, Utah runs a network of CNG fueling stations for public fleets and lets private citizens buy CNG in certain situations.

Several other western states have networks of CNG fueling stations.


AN EARLIER IDEA

The proposed study is not the first to look at CNG as a solution to Alaska's energy woes.

Earlier in the year, the engineering firm PDC Harris Group pitched the idea of shipping liquefied natural gas to rural communities around the state and compressing it for use in furnaces, boilers and small power plants that now burn diesel and fuel oil.

Bethel, a hub in Southwest Alaska, later presented a similar idea to a state legislative committee, looking for some financing to push the project forward.



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