Larry Jaques writes:


Does anyone know what the certainty is of the natural gas supply to
continue uninterrupted during a week+long region-wide power outage?
There's lots of capacity in the pipeline, but...


It's not the pileline that stores it; it's large tanks. In
most of the country, natural gas is highly reliable, with
MTBF's in decades. (Obviously, Shake & Bake Califunny is an
exception.) Given the massive effort the utility must expend to
restart; that's not surprising.

I recall a local gas utility outage in the 60's. It was summer
and only part of one suburb, but took them 60H+ and mega$$$ of
overtime to visit every house, shut off the main, re-pressure
the feeds (and vent, I bet) then one by one re-visit each house
and relight pilots.

You need to look at the upside/downside of alternatives:

a) Gasoline: Chances are your insurance company, fire marshal
and the local EPA will be all over you if you want to store more
than a few gallons of gasoline. Plus it spoils. You can rotate
it out by burning it in cars.

b) Diesel: Surely a great idea at a facility where they have big
demands & have regular maintenance. But the fuel has a limited
lifetime, & grows critters in the tank. (Got a Diesel car?) The
initial cost is higher and the engines need frequent oil
changes.

c) Propane: Burns clean, since you consume vapor. Stores forever,
and does not upset the fire marshal. But it does need a large tank
for a reasonable capacity.




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