Town losing gas supply and going electric?

Question by sler: Town losing gas supply and going electric?
Years ago I saw a news story about a town losing its mains gas supply and a decision being made that it would not be restored and the town would convert to all electric? I thought it was in New Zealand? I am trying to work out where and when this was, and cannot recall.


Best answer:

Answer by Ecko
I imagine this was common, or widespread. The city I lived in (in Australia) had a reticulated coal gas (town gas) system intended for heating appliances, which was eventually phased out during the 1960's. This gas was called water gas or producer gas, typically a mixture of mainly Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide, maybe Methane. It was made by passing water/steam and air over a bed of red hot coke, though there are many processes for this manufactured gas. The coke was produced elsewhere, near the coal fields. The distribution was at low pressure in lead pipes about 20mm diameter, regulated by the storage tank called a gasometer. I am fairly certain this is the mains gas that would have been phased out in the news article you remember.

Users of this gas were able to convert their gas cookers and other gas appliances to LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) supplied from cylinders. LPG is a mixture of propane and/or butane mostly. It was promoted as less toxic than the CO containing town gas I remember. Many converted to electric too.

The demise of coal gas in this region coincided with the increased availability of LPG (made by refining LNG). I think the gas company didn't want to expand their reticulation scheme in the face of the competition from individual LPG cylinders. The increase in capability and reductions in cost of electrical supply was also an issue, due to grid connections allowing efficiencies in production, such as coal stations on the coalfields versus local stations with transported coal or diesel fuel. LPG is still widely used in regional Australia (and many other countries), but so is wood. This is actually the best to use from the point of view of sustainability (non fossil fuel). The net production of CO2 is zero in the long term for wood.

More recently (Natural Gas) has been widely reticulated in the major cities in Australia, promoted as a cleaner alternative (lower CO2 production) than coal generated electricity. LNG is mostly methane, and can be obtained from both coal and oil fields (though most people think of oil fields). It is usually distributed to houses in small diameter (approx 6mm) high pressure pipes. Note that the gas is liquefied for transportation by ship as LNG, but is distributed in pipes as a gas, so is called natural gas..

It is quite possible that manufactured gas such as coal gas is still used in your own region. Its use depends on the local availability and cost of alternatives. I just read that Hong Kong has converted from LPG to reticulated coal gas for example.

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