[A] Vermont company will begin delivering compressed natural gas to a New York paper mill next month after plans to pipe natural gas under Lake Champlain were abandoned for financial reasons.
NG Advantage, a Colchester company, will begin sending 18 tractor-trailers per day, seven days a week, from its loading station in Milton to the International Paper mill in Ticonderoga, New York, the company announced Thursday.
International Paper says it will use the natural gas to replace 60 percent of its fuel at the mill, displacing about 32,000 gallons of fuel oil a day. The natural gas will be used to power a kiln and power boiler at the plant. The trucks run on diesel.
International Paper terminated a contract with Vermont Gas Systems in February to pay for nearly the entire cost of its pipeline from Middlebury to the plant. The decision was made after Vermont Gas announced the cost to build the pipeline rose to $105 million from the original $64 million estimate.
The plant has released a request for proposals for a long-term contract to truck gas to the plant. NG Advantage is a bidder on the project. International Paper may decide to use natural gas to offset other fuels at the plant.
“There is room for the expansion of compressed NG in the future,” said Donna Wadsworth, communications manager for International Paper.
Mary Evslin, vice president of marketing NG Advantage LLC, said the trucks will fuel up at one of three fueling stations, including a site in Milton, cross the bridge in Ticonderoga, and deliver the gas to a loading station at the plant. She said the trucks are all certified for safety by the Department of Transportation.
The company is currently trucking gas to 24 sites across the region, including three locations in Rutland and a gas island in Middlebury. The sites include hospitals, asphalt plants, paper mills, and the Cabot Creamery.
“The most important thing is that it proves to the industry and to us that the idea of a virtual pipeline is scalable,” she said. “We are really a viable pipeline replacement option.”
She said the company has spoken with some coal-powered power plant owners following a regulatory proposal by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon emissions from electric power plants, known as the Clean Power Plan. She said NG Advantage might be part of the solution to help plants comply if the regulations move forward.
“If the world changes on them then we turn our trucks turn around and go away,” she said. “It’s a pretty risk-free situation for them.”
