Petition for electric compressor station motor rejected
WEYMOUTH The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection denied a citizens group petition to have an electric powered turbine at a compressor station in the Fore River Basin.
DEP presiding officer Jane Rothchild said federal regulations don t support a wholesale replacement of the gas turbine by Algonquin Gas Transmission, the Enbridge subsidiary that runs the compressor station.
“A preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that a combustion turbine is a different design than an electric motor drive,” said the ruling on Tuesday. “The equipment in a combustion turbine is different than the equipment in an electric motor drive, and an electric motor drive cannot run on natural gas.”