Opening of station makes CNG more accessible to county, residents

Toward the end of 2014, the Centre Region saw a push for more compressed natural gas-fueled service vehicles.

County commissioners approved the purchase of CNG-converted vans and the Council of Governments approved a program to replace diesel-running garbage and recycling trucks with compressed gas-running counterparts. But with the influx of vehicles, fueling them looked to be an issue.

At the time, the only CNG fueling stations in the region were located at the Centre Area Transportation Authority bus depot and the adjacent Uni-Mart in Ferguson Township. Then, nearly a year ago, a $642,894 grant was awarded to Clean Energy Inc., a California-based natural gas fueling company, to build a CNG fueling station at the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority in College Township.

The station opened Dec. 30, authority Executive Director Ted Onufrak said Wednesday, and business has been steady ever since.

“It’s open to the public if the public wants to use it,” he said. “They don’t have to have an account. You just go in with a Visa or MasterCard and it will take them.”

The station offers three dispensaries, he said. Customers can pay by credit card or can set up an account with Clean Energy for monthly billing and use the issue fuel card.

Operation, pricing and billing is handled through Clean Energy, he said. Currently, CNG is priced at $2.29 gas gallon equivalent (GGE).

The authority is paid $1,000 a month as part of the land lease and gets 5 cents for every “gallon” sold, Onufrak said. The motivation to host a CNG station is multifold as there has been a push for natural gas infrastructure in the area thanks to shale gas, and a COG contract requires refuse and recycling vehicles to run on CNG as well.

“Curbside collection vehicles are fit for something like this because you’re in residential areas and they have cleaner air emissions than using diesel,” he said. “Plus, they’re a lot quieter.”

County vehicles have been taking advantage of the closer fueling opportunity, transportation Director Dave Lomison said. All CNG vans are fueling at the station at least once a day most days, sometimes several times depending on how far they travel.

“We’re excited,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate enough to have CATA to fuel up at for the last couple of years with our agreement with them. But having this facility, where it’s located, is much more convenient for us.

“It’s at the hub of our activity, so it saves us from having to travel across town to fuel,” he said.

The county has eight vehicles that run on CNG, he said, with two more coming by June. The goal is to add more over the coming years until at least half the fleet is running on compressed gas.

The biggest issue is traveling out of the county, he said, and not having fueling capabilities. And if regular gas prices continue to dip lower than compressed gas, he may rethink the half-CNG fleet option.

“But if CNG becomes the fuel of choice and is most economical, we’ll recommend increasing the number of CNG vehicles,” he said. “It’s definitely better for the environment.”

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Opening of station makes CNG more accessible to county, residents."