NYSEG, a subsidiary of Iberdrola USA, provided local and state officials with a close-up look on Dec. 9 at its new CNG facility on North Central Avenue in Mechanicville, NY.

The only utility-owned facility of its kind in New York State, the station enables NYSEG to offer service to more customers by increasing the supply of natural gas available. Natural gas deliveries by truck create a “virtual pipeline” to inject more natural gas into NYSEG’s local delivery system, allowing NYSEG to lift a three-year moratorium on providing new natural gas service in the City of Mechanicville and the Towns of Stillwater and Halfmoon.

The facility consists of a CNG unloading and decompression station and a new steel building that houses pressure regulation equipment and the connection to NYSEG’s existing local natural gas distribution system. Site work included new lighting, fencing, paving and landscaping.

NYSEG’s Boston-based vendor, XNG, trucks compressed natural gas to the site where it is off-loaded into NYSEG’s local natural gas distribution system as it is needed to supplement NYSEG’s existing pipeline supply source. It will be used from November 1 through March 31 each winter when demand for natural gas is highest.

Local NYSEG personnel and XNG personnel have been extensively trained in the operation of the facility. Along with local first responders, NYSEG and XNG personnel have also been trained in emergency response.

The facility is monitored in real time 24 hours a day, seven days a week from NYSEG’s central gas control facility in Binghamton.

“Faced with limited natural gas supply here, our people came up with an innovative solution to ensure the availability of clean, economical natural gas to existing and prospective NYSEG customers in the Mechanicville area,” said Mark S. Lynch, president and CEO of NYSEG and RG&E. “This facility is the product of a team effort, and we thank our project partners for helping to make it a reality.”