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Sicamous considered at for natural gas service

FortisBC is once again looking at bringing natural gas to Sicamous.
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FortisBC is once again looking at bringing natural gas to Sicamous.

Nicole Bogdanovic, a spokesperson for the private utility provider, confirmed the company is looking at whether or not it would be feasible to bring natural gas to Sicamous.

“Part of that analysis would include the cost of the project, determining the route and any engineering requirements for that. That’s what the discussions would be about,” said Bogdanovic.

At the May 10 district council meeting, Mayor Terry Rysz said council spent two hours with Fortis representatives at the recent Southern Interior Local Government Association convention.

“They’re very interested in bringing natural gas here again, and that conversation is going to be taking place with our staff and their staff, and then we’re going to see where we can go with this,” said Rysz.

Fortis began a similar process in 2013, where the company looked at converting Sicamous propane users to natural gas. In a related presentation to district council, FortisBC spokesperson Ruth Sulentich said the plan at that time involved trucking compressed natural gas from Salmon Arm to Sicamous (with approximately six, 53-foot trailers, potentially powered by natural gas), and developing a distribution system in the community through which to service businesses and residents on the east side of the Bruhn Bridge.

“The customer would be responsible to bear the cost of the meter as well as conversion of their appliances, depending on what they’re using… the good news is with customers on propane, there’s very minimal changes required to convert to natural gas so the cost would be fairly low,” said Sulentich, noting the cost of conversion would include meters, as well as changing over relevant appliances including furnaces, hot water tanks, fireplaces, etc.

Sulentich said the district’s commercial businesses and about 600 homes were needed to convert to natural gas to make delivery feasible.

Eventually, Fortis determined not to proceed with the project.

Asked if information from the prior assessment may help speed up Fortis’ current feasibility study, Bogdanovich said she wasn’t sure how much things have moved along, only that the hope is to “make an announcement in the near term and not over the long term.”

In October 2014, Fortis began a feasibility study for delivering natural gas to Revelstoke. In November 2016, Fortis announced it was no longer seeking regulatory approval to convert its Revelstoke propane users to natural gas. While propane pricers were notably higher then the process began, by late 2016, propane rates had dropped by approximately 60 per cent. In December 2016, FortisBC announced its Revelstoke propane customers would see a nine per cent increase in 2017.