The Pipeline is Strong
There are currently more than 2.4 million miles of pipeline infrastructure in the country, and natural gas utilities are spending more than $22 billion each year to upgrade and expand service.
The natural gas utility is historically very reliable with very few outages. Several recent studies conclude that reliability of the utility natural gas supply will continue to increase due to unconventional gas supply, pipeline expansion and improvements in operations.
- On site diesel storage can provide 24-72 hours run time: refueling via truck dependent on availability of fuel and infrastructure following an event (e.g. weather, crisis, etc).
- Natural Gas pipeline can provide weeks to months of fuel.
- Bi-Fuel generators (diesel/natural gas) extend run times from days to weeks by supplementing on-site fuel storage with natural gas.
- MIT study for improving energy security recommended the use of natural gas and bi-fuel generation for defense facilities.
- Natural Gas pipeline network is robust; historic outages are few.
- Unlike diesel, natural gas has no fuel maintenance issues.
