CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountaineer Gas hopes to be in service and have gas flowing through the Eastern Panhandle by the end of 2017.
The company filed a plan with the state Public Service Commission last week for a significant 46-mile project to expand service in the region.
The natural energy company, along with combined efforts from the economic development groups of Jefferson, Morgan, and Berkeley Counties, have worked for several years to bring natural gas to the area due to the increased demand from commercial and industrial plants seeking to locate in the Panhandle.
Moses Skaff, Senior Vice President of Mountaineer Gas, said on Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval Friday morning the plan will consist of two phases, and emphasized that this will be a natural gas distribution pipeline, rather than a transmission pipeline.
“We’re going to take our gas from the northern side of Morgan County by the Berkeley Springs area. That’ll be what we call a ‘trunkline’ that will come down to the Martinsburg area,” he explained, “The second phase of that is what we call the ‘Martinsburg Loop’, that with our existing system in Martinsburg, we’ll be doing some expansion lines that will complete the entire segment. So we will have a two-way feed all the way from the north, through Martinsburg, around Martinsburg, and then back to the Berkeley Springs area.”
He also said initially the gas will only flow through a mainline, and residential services are slated to come later.
Eric Lewis, President of Jefferson County Development Authority, was present to speak on behalf of the potential business Jefferson County could see.
He said it will be a “gamechanger” for them economically because they barely have natural gas in Jefferson County whatsoever, stating, “We’ve had many businesses that have told us they’d be here if we had natural gas, so we really believe this gives us that tool that we need.”
“Dozens” of businesses have declined to move to Jefferson County over the past 20 years due to the lack of Natural Gas, according to Lewis.
He went on to say that many manufacturing processes can’t use electricity, and they find it costly to utilize liquid propane.
He also said that for the last several years [natural gas] has been the “cleanest, least expensive, most plentiful power source” to be offered.
When asked why it has taken so long for plentiful natural gas to come to the Eastern Panhandle, Skaff said there were two main issues.
“One is the customer base in a study that the economic groups up there helped us develop last year. So the demand needs to be there,” he stated.
The second issue was funding, but Skaff said due to the IREP (Infrastructure Replacement and Expansion Program) and Senate Bill 390, they were able to make petitions to the public service commission for help.
Mountaineer Gas still needs to get Public Service Commission approval, which they are hoping to get by mid-August, before they start construction.