WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER SETS RECORD VISITS FOR YEAR 7,017,658 VISITS! 2,098,003 VISITORS MADE 6 VISITS A DAY EVERY DAY. 63,330 UNIQUE VISITORS MADE 133,730 VISITS IN DECEMBER. WPCNR AVERAGED 17,284 VISITORS A WEEK, VISITING 31,270 TIMES.

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Natural  Gas Conservation Efforts Urged.

An extension of moratorium not prudent.

Moratorium a safety precaution to avert massive shutdowns of metropolitan areas if Natural Gas demand exceeds available supply.

Rhode Island shutdowns show peril of gas shortage.

WPCNR THE POWER STORY. By John F. Bailey. February 7, 2019:

A Consolidated Edison spokesperson told WPCNR Wednesday the moratorium on natural gas fueled new approvals and installations after March of 2021 was firm.

An extension of the Con Ed “moratorium” on new natural gas  connections after March 15, puts the area at risk of natural gas shutdowns if demand for natural gas exceeded supply in high demand periods.,spokesman Bob McGee said. 

He cited the shutdown of natural gas to 10,000 gas customers in the Newport area two weeks ago as what happens when gas supply is exceeded by demand.

Hopes expressed earlier this week by Westchester County officials of the county and its cities and towns leaders and local business associations, that the March 15 deadline  on new applications announced by Con Edison January 29, could be moved up  much farther out into the future by the Public Service Commission appear doubtful.

Con Edison took a look at what they had in already approved projects, and the gas supply, and the demands the approved projections will put on the system, McGee told WPCNR. Based on the anticipated demand two years out and the demand for natural gas for heating, Con Ed decided to impose the moratorium.

McGee said that projects approved now by Consolidated Edison the company can handle. However new projects not submitted by March 15, would not be considered (immediately). Projects already approved for a connection would be continued, but installation had to be completed by 2021.

Consolidated Edison has alerted officials of the growing demand for natural gas. In August, 2018, Con Edison pointed out in a news article the growth of natural gas demand since 2014-15.

“During the winter heating season in 2014-15, ConEd relied on delivered (gas) services for 5% of its gas needs, but by winter 2017-18, delivered services (for gas) reach 17%. The company expects delivered services to meet 22% of gas needs by 2023 unless the region gets access to new pipeline capacity,” the company said in the article.

A New York State Public Service Commission approved a gas demand response pilot program that the PSC said could meet (only) 1% of the pipeline capacity shortfall by 2023.

Earlier in October 2017, Con Ed warned again of the exponential gas demand. A Con Ed spokesman was quoted, noting “(construction of gas pipelines) is not keeping pace with growing demand.”

McGee referred to the Newport, Rhode Island gas outage two weeks ago as evidence of why the moratorium and focus on conservation is needed to avoid demand for gas beyond capacity: 

Thousands of people have to be turned off from the gas supply, and then have to be returned on one pilot light at a time.

The New Haven Register reported January 24 that during the near zero temperatures of two weeks ago, Marylee Hanley, spokesperson for Enbridge the company that manages the Algonquin gas pipeline, said “Our initial analysis indicates that the primary loss of natural gas service were an unusually high demand for natural gas on the Algonquin pipeline due to cold temperatures that exceeded the system’s supply capability, coupled with an equipment malfunction(failed valve), which temporarily restricted available natural gas supplies,” Hanley said.

“There appears to be a number of other contributing factors that may have exacerbated the conditions leading to the loss of service. We continue to collaborate with the local gas company and assist in any way we can with gas service restoration efforts.”

Approximately 10,000 persons were affected. National Grid crews were going door-to-door restoring service.  To read the New Haven Register story on this consequence of natural gas over demand situation. Copy the following link and Go to

www.nhregister.com/business/article/Pipeline-company-says-high-demand-for-gas-may-13559645.php

FIOS 1 interviews Con Ed Director of Media Relations

In an interview with FIOS 1- recorded Wednesday, January 30, (apparently before Con Edison briefed county officials on the moratorium), Michael Clendenin, Director of Media Relations was interviewed on the need for the moratorium. Con Edison provided this link to that interview to WPCNR:

That interview can be seen in its entirety here:

http://fios1news.com/news/director-of-media-relations-for-con-edison-discusses-natural-gas-moratorium/

Mr. McGee told WPCNR that buildings and developments can avert a loss of power due to a gas cutoff by installing a backup system which can be switched over for power to run heating systems. Such customers are known as “Interrupted Customers” which are automatically switched over in the event the gas supply is “interrupted.”

McGee said ultimately that the solution to the gas supply demand is for advanced storage facilities to reserve gas coupled with conservation demands.

Asked if the Public Service Commision had completed its review of Con Ed restoration of Westchester County in the highly criticized effort to repower 100,000 customers (over 10 days), McGee said he was not aware of any timetable for that PSC report or any disciplines. He suggested WPCNR contact the PSC.

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WPCNR THE POWER STORY. From the Business Council of Westchester. February 5, 2019:

The Business Council of Westchester brought together more than 50 leading developers with projects planned for Westchester to a top-level briefing and discussion with representatives of Con Edison of the utility company’s announced March 15 moratorium on accepting new natural gas customers.

  A lack of pipeline capacity necessary to supply the gas to the utility to meet increased demand is the root cause of the problem, Con Ed has explained.

The two-hour, closed-door session Monday facilitated an open, wide-ranging discussion of the natural gas supply shortage situation which poses a real threat to the future of economic development in most of Westchester including its major urban centers.

Developers representing a cross-section of smaller, mid-sized and large companies, as well as affordable housing advocates, joined in the conversation and endorsed the BCW’s implementation of a task force to begin exploration of both short and long-term ways of addressing the issue.

“While the gas shortage has been years in the making, it has now reached the point of a crisis that threatens our economy,” said BCW President and CEO Marsha Gordon.  “While there are no easy solutions,” she said, “there are potential steps that can be taken to ease the immediate problem that we will be carefully evaluating with the goal of recommending a plan of action steps as quickly as possible.”

Gordon added: “The level of participation and interest, and the strong sense of unity reflects how deeply this issue will affect not only the development community but the residents of Westchester County.  After decades of struggling, our downtown areas of Yonkers, New Rochelle and other urban areas are seeing unprecedented new growth and renewal.  To jeopardize this is simply not an option.”

The BCW taskforce will include outreach to local, county and state leaders to work together to address the immediate and long-term situation, and in May will hold a major energy conference.

“The major takeaway from our initial meeting is that the business and development community is ready, willing and able to step forward and work with Con Edison, the state government, the Public Service Commission and any and all other involved parties to tackle the issue head-on,” Gordon said. “This was a wake-up call that can’t be ignored, and we’re confident that working together we can and will find viable solutions.  We have no choice.”  

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WPCNR COUNTY CLARION-LEDGER. BY John F. Bailey. February 4, 2019 UPDATE 5:20 P.M. E.S.T. IN BOLD:

County Executive George Latimer this morning outlined how the county would proceed in seeking to work to find solutions to Con Edison, the major electric and gas in Westchester County, putting in place a moratorium on new natural gas connections in Westchester County over 2/3 of the county.

He announced the county would seek an extension of the March 15 deadline for applications for new connections with the Public Service Commission.

He announced the formation of county and business groups to identify ways natural gas demand could be conserved to allow continued development. In tandem with that across-the-board reach out, Mr. Latimer said he would direct all county departments and municipalities to find how the county could cut down its use of natural gas.

He said he would work cooperatively with Con Edison to identify ways to cut natural gas demand to allow allocation of Con Edison limited natural gas supply.

WPCNR asked Mr. Latimer If the the Con Ed 6 % rate increase for electric and 11% for gas, primarily targeted for “infrastructure improvements,” as stated in the Con Ed news release (reprinted in the preceding article below), announcing the increase last Thursday would be devoted to increasing the availability of natural gas, and Latimer said Con Ed did not plan the rate increase revenues to improve availability of the gas supply.

Noam Bramson, Mayor of New Rochelle, told WPCNR as we were exiting the news conference, said that was important to know that Con Edison infrastructure within the county was not an issue, instead it was the availability of natural gas through either another pipeline leading into the county to bring in more natural gas was the issue behind the moratorium.

Bramson added that the more crucial date concerned when gas installations presently approved had to be connected to any facility being built, which he said was two years away. That date, approximately March of 2021, he said put present developments in jeopardy.

Tom Roach, Mayor of White Plains, told WPCNR that all of White Plains present “approved” projects were not subject to the moratorium, their gaslines already approved. (WPCNR requested a listing of the approved projects.

WPCNR believes they are The Broadstone, The Continuum (second building to come), 440 Hamilton Avenue renovation, the White Plains Pavilion project, (approved but awaiting redesign), Esplanade renovation, Projects that may be affected are the White Plains projects on Bloomindale Road and Westchester Avenue .

Recent projects that may be affected by the moratorium are the four forthcoming White Plains MetroNorth properties, which have no designs or projects yet proposed, the Martin Ginsberg project recently introduced, and the Good Counsel Property development current in an environmental evaluation and not approved yet.

Asked by WPCNR if the Public Service Commission had indicated how Con Edison and NYSEG would hold accountable the two power companies for their severely criticized performance in restoring power last March, Latimer said the county would be meeting with PSC next week, but at present time he had knowledge of PSC decisions on whether to discipline the two companies or not.

Mr. Latimer said he would be sending Joan McDonald, Director of Operations to Albany to discuss the possibility of extending the moratorium deadline.

Asked by WPCNR if he supported the Con Edison rate increases, Latimer said no decision has been made on that issue yet, and it was in the process of being evaluated.

Here is the WPCNR video of the complete news conference, hastily called this morning.

The details of the County Executive’s Plans include:

·         Facilitating next steps with municipalities and Con Edison;           

o   Including a full list of projects and their timetables for construction to get a big picture of where we as a County are with demand; 

·         Enlisting the help of energy consultants who can guide us through the regulatory process;

·         Tasking Director of Energy & Sustainability Pete McCartt with performing a survey to explore how the County can reduce gas usage at our facilities;

·         Tasking Director of Operations Joan McDonald with working with New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) Chairman & CEO John Rhodes from to encourage Con Edison to delay the moratorium so we as a County can develop and action plan;

o   Additionally, County Executive Latimer will be testifying at the next PSC hearing;

·         Working with the business community, and other entities, to help them navigate this moratorium and how it relates to development.

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White Plains Week can also be seen anytime on www,wpcommunitymedia.org

(Just scroll down the Program Wall to White Plains Week(

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Mr. Soloway on

The formula he has used to attract new patrons to unique new performances for changing tastes

The problems the arts face in Westchester

The need for arts in Westchester

How arts reach out to enthrall and educate people of all ages and change attitudes.

His changing model for carrying the Purchase Center for the Performing Arts to deal with the changing demographics of the Westchester audience

SATURDAY NIGHT AT 7 ON CH. 45 FIOS AND CH.76 ALTICE AND WORLDWIDE ON WWW.WPCOMMUNITYMEDIA.ORG

(SCROLL DOWN THE PROGRAM WALL TO “PEOPLE TO BE HEARD”)

AND NOW ON YOUTUBE AT

https://youtu.be/GDanyCLh9Ek  

AND WHITE PLAINS WEEK at

http://www.whiteplainsweek.com/