Pepco Energy Services has announced that it has been awarded a contract by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) to supply natural gas to WMATA's entire fleet of energy-efficient buses in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Under the three-year contract, which begins in November, Pepco Energy Services will supply 2.6 billion cubic feet of natural gas to two compression stations that fuel WMATA's 439 compressed natural gas (CNG) buses and various ancillary facilities in the area.
The compression stations are located at the Bladensburg CNG Bus Garage fueling facility in the District of Columbia and the Four Mile Run CNG Bus Garage fueling facility in Arlington, Virginia.
WMATA, which operates the second largest rail transit system and the fifth largest bus network in the United States, developed a plan in 2001 to convert much of its bus fleet from diesel to CNG to help alleviate air pollution in the Washington metropolitan region.
When the U.S. Department of Energy and its Natural Renewable Energy Laboratory evaluated the emissions of the new WMATA CNG buses and comparable diesel buses in 2002, it found that the CNG buses had 53 percent lower oxides of nitrogen, 85 percent lower total particulate matter and 89 percent lower carbon monoxide.
"We are proud to be supplying natural gas to WMATA's fleet of energy-efficient buses," stated Bob Barron, President of the Natural Gas Supply Division of Pepco Energy Services.
"Providing clean and cost-effective natural gas supplies to our growing customer base is our prime objective, especially in times of escalating oil prices. Transitioning our transportation economy to fuels like natural gas is critical in reducing our oil dependency."
