City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri is a combined electricity, natural gas, and water utility with 79,000 gas customers in a 320 square mile service territory served since 1945. Like many gas systems, Springfield has been trying to cope with the double-whammy of warm weather and high gas prices in recent years. Their primary load is heating load from November through February, with additional load from hot water, cooking, pool heating, and gas lighting. In addition, since they are a combined electricity, natural gas, and water utility, they have the advantage of a “significant opportunity to burn gas for power generation in summer peaking turbines, depending on the price of gas.” This levels the load factor and takes up some of the slack from the warm winters.

Coils of pipe to replace pre-1982 plastic pipe

In 2004, Springfield put together a renewal program for some of its 1240 miles of distribution line. In particular, they are replacing some pre-1982 plastic pipe, which has started to show signs of failure due to rock impingement. According to Gerry Lee, Manager-Special Projects and President of APGA from 1997-1998, “Some leaks are starting to occur in these pipes, primarily due to inadequate bedding.” Taking care of these with a formal renewal program will help control maintenance costs.

To Gerry Lee, the most valuable thing APGA does is “represent the interests (of gas utilities) in DC and act as an advocate on the regulatory and legislative fronts for those utilities that don’t have someone there themselves. (APGA) has done a tremendous job with keeping us up to speed with legislative issues.”

Additionally, the APGA public awareness model plans are being utilized by the Springfield system to develop their plans. “It keeps us from having to reinvent the wheel.” APGA should continually focus on operational issues, and provide a forum for public utilities to share best practices in order to make systems more efficient operationally and comply with federal and state guidelines without having to work from scratch. “Utilities aren’t that different. While we have our little nuances, operationally we are very similar.”

Originally in March 10, 2005 Public Gas News