Consumers Energy gas delivery facility offline

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I got a red alert notification on my phone last night, asking all residents to lower their thermostats in order to curtail natural gas demand.

There was a fire at one of the facilities yesterday. This facility is responsible for delivering gas in peak demand periods, such as the one we are experiencing right now due to the extreme cold. There is a risk gas will stop flowing to some areas in Michigan as a result.

https://www.mlive.com/news/2019/01/...ing-on-gas-reserves-decreased-usage.html
 
Minneapolis is also experiencing problems with gas delivery, because of high demand. Asking people to lower thermostats to 65 deg.
 
Well everything has its pros and cons. Natural gas is cheap but a consumer cannot really store it unless you built a huge refrigeration plant. Propane is more money and so is oil but both can be stored. I have about 550 gallons of heating oil which will last me the rest of the winter.
 
Yep, GM Lansing sent us all home at 8pm last night at the request of the Gas Company in the hopes that our reduced energy consumption will prevent homes from losing heat. At this time we don't know if we will show up tonight for work since it takes some time to get the paint shop ovens back up to temp.

Should be an interesting couple days!
 
Sorry for the bad news. Maybe the gas companies should prepare in the fall before winter to have it stored rather than being on demand.
 
Originally Posted by anndel
Sorry for the bad news. Maybe the gas companies should prepare in the fall before winter to have it stored rather than being on demand.
They do have it stored. What broke is a facility that actually delivers that gas into the system.
 
Originally Posted by anndel
Sorry for the bad news. Maybe the gas companies should prepare in the fall before winter to have it stored rather than being on demand.


If you read the article you would see they have 350billion CF of storage.
 
Omaha's utility is having to add stored natural gas to their distribution network because of low gas pressure due to demand. Suppose to warm up tomorrow and I saw a high in the fifties for Sunday.
 
Originally Posted by Rand
Originally Posted by anndel
Sorry for the bad news. Maybe the gas companies should prepare in the fall before winter to have it stored rather than being on demand.


If you read the article you would see they have 350billion CF of storage.

Why read when you can just jump straight into posting?
 
Originally Posted by BobsArmory
Yep, GM Lansing sent us all home at 8pm last night at the request of the Gas Company in the hopes that our reduced energy consumption will prevent homes from losing heat. At this time we don't know if we will show up tonight for work since it takes some time to get the paint shop ovens back up to temp.


Grand River or Delta Township site?

I work for DTE, the other large utility in Michigan, and have been working from home for the past two days at the suggestion of the company (I am at my lunch period as I type this) so they can shut down their offices to direct more of the electricity to keep customers' homes warm. I normally work at one of their Power Plants, and the Plant's head count is "Essential Personnel Only" for yesterday and today. Since I have enough desk work to keep myself busy and productive for the two days I am working off-site while remaining On-Call if the stuff hits the fan.
 
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A list of all the GM facilities in the SE Michigan region that are stopping activity:

Manufacturing:

Bay City Powertrain
Orion Assembly
Pontiac Stamping
Flint Assembly
Flint Stamping
Flint Engine
Flint Tool & Die
Lansing Delta Township Assembly
Lansing Grand River Assembly
Lansing Regional Stamping
Lansing Grand River Stamping
Saginaw Metal Casting Operations
Warren Transmission

Non-manufacturing:

Warren GM Tech Center
Pontiac Engineering
Grand Blanc Customer Care and Aftersales HQ
 
Looks like that area is served by "Panhandle Eastern" via Trunkline gas to the gulf.

I keep telling people it was incredibly stupid for Energy Transfer to rely on ONE 30" line from the Gulf, and convert the other two legs to Petroleum pipelines. One leg was not used and I am fine with them using that to move Canadian crude, but Energy Greedy Transfer took a bidirectional NG line into a one 30" line, thus reducing capacity.

Quote
"We are concerned that this proposed abandonment could have a negative impact on energy supply and price for Michigan's natural gas customers and electric utility generators," they said in a letter to US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff.

The letter, released Wednesday, was signed by US Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, both Democrats from Michigan, as well as a bipartisan group of 12 members of the House of Representatives.

The letter listed a number of issues that FERC should consider before deciding on Trunkline's request, including the project's impact on Michigan gas consumers and Midwest electric generators.

Since the mainline is looped, gas service on the original line would continue after the looped section is converted to oil. After the sale, Trunkline's mainline capacity would be reduced by 597,000 Dt/d, or 38%, to 958,000 Dt/d, according to the application.

Almighty dollar wins again.
 
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