Member System Profiles: City of Sunrise Gas Department

The City of Sunrise, Florida’s Gas Department has grown from modest beginnings as a city utility to become a full-service gas utility running gas lines, installing and repairing gas appliances, and running a very active ‘customer choice’ Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and propane vehicles program. It all started in 1971, when the City acquired two underground propane systems with 1800 customers, which were converted to natural gas later that year. Since then, the distribution system has grown from 37 miles in town to 187 miles and 9200 accounts in Sunrise and four adjacent cities: Tamarac, Lauderhill, Plantation, and Weston.

As a full-service gas utility, Sunrise installs and repairs natural gas appliances. According to Harry Zehender, Director of Sunrise Gas, “we are currently installing gas appliances in 396 condos in twin 26 story buildings called the Tao condo project,
and in the Artesia development, where we are doing 1, 470 condos and townhouses, where one-bedroom homes are going for $400,000. We’re pretty busy!”
In addition to residential business, they have a lot of restaurants outside the city. The Panther’s hockey arena is also a customer, since they have found using gas for their desiccant system makes better ice.

In their brand new headquarters, Sunrise Gas employ gas air-conditioning themselves, and, in the event of a hurricane, they can continue to function thanks to a stand-by generator that can run on either natural gas or propane.

When hurricanes hit, the city’s police force and other city officials can get around town if the power to the gasoline pumps is down, thanks to Sunrise’s propane and CNG vehicles program. They currently run three CNG stations and one for propane. The utility provides customers using either of these facilities with a special credit card, which is the only method of payment they accept, and bills them once a month.

There are currently 50 CNG vehicles in Sunrise under this program. The Sunrise post office also employ CNG vehicles, which have their own fueling station. The U.S. Department of Energy presented a National Energy Award to the city for their alternative vehicle program, and the Alternative Vehicle Coalition awarded the program in 1999.
One thing that Harry notes is “dual-fuel vehicles are not the answer. The police department has been driving Ford Crown Victorias, which are dual fuel. When the police need to fuel up, out of habit, they choose gasoline instead of CNG.”

To deal with the current pricing situation, the City of Sunrise has gone in with other municipalities as a member of the Florida Gas Utility. Working with other Munis allows them to buy gas for a better price. Harry has made a decision to not promote gas heat, which would require more capacity for only two weeks out of the year, and to get rid of excess capacity.

Sunrise Gas has been member about of APGA for about 15 years. Harry Zehender was our 35th president in 1996-1997. Sunrise joined APGA because we “offer the opportunity to share knowledge and experience with other gas systems with new methods of dealing with operations, regulations, and legislation. There is also an important element of camaraderie by being with other fellow public gas officials. APGA stands strong as ‘the voice and choice of public gas’.” He is proud of the fact that he helped develop that APGA slogan.

APGA needs to continue with operations training, because there is a “constant moving target with operator quality”. APGA also needs to increase its marketing efforts, which are not only “necessary to attract new customers, but essential to keep the ones we have who are being bombarded with misleading ads on energy efficiency by electric utilities. Most of our customers don’t realize that gas is three times as efficient as electricity to begin with!” Finally, Zeherder thinks APGA needs to visit the members in each state. “We have not had a visit from an APGA person in a while.”

Originally in May 27, 2005 Public Gas News