Demand for new gas service taxes utility
By DAN MORIARTY
Staff Writer
WESTFIELD – The Municipal Light Board voted Wednesday night to modify the municipal utility’s policy of extending gas service to residents.
The board approved a one-year trail of the policy that will allow the Westfield Gas & Electric management team to install gas services based upon the volume residential consumption and return of the utility’s cost to bring gas service to the residence.
WG&E General Manager Daniel Howard requested the board to review the existing policy of unrestricted gas service installation. Howard said that there has been a sharp increase in the number of residents seeking gas service, in particular since the Oct. 29 snow storm that cut electrical power for many residents for five days of more.
Howard said the utility has a $100,000 budget for gas line service installation, but spent $350,000 on providing residential gas service.
“So we need some sort of control,” Howard said.
The issue is that it costs the same to extend gas service to a residence with a high volume gas consumption demand as to a residence with a low demand. Residents using gas for heat, hot water, and cooking use sufficient volumes of gas to quickly return that utility’s investment of extending the gas service line.
Conversely, residents who will have limited use of the gas, just for cooking, or a gas fire-place or for an emergency generator, may not use sufficient gas to cover the cost of extending the line, meaning that the utility does not recoup its investment.
The issue came to light have the October storm when many residents with oil heat and hot water requested a gas line to operate emergency generators.
“The payback for (installing) a line to supply gas for a generator is forever,” Howard said.
“The policy now is that everyone is targeted equally, which is causing issues in planning and logistics,” Howard said to the board. “All we are looking for is to add three to four lines to the policy. The intent is that we spend significant dollars, so we should get a return on our investment.”
The MLB members approved a modification of the policy to read:
“The customer’s costs for new installations, if any, will be determined after reviewing the value of the proposed load and the prevailing market conditions. In all cases, it is the goal of the department to determine installation costs in a manner that conforms to appropriate payback analyses that ensure a positive affect for all existing natural gas customers. When approved, residential customers will pay $30 for every foot of the service line beyond 200 feet.”
