Potelco, One of Washington’s Largest Fleets, Switches to LNG Vehicles

With operations requiring the use of over 3,000 vehicles, Potelco’s Fleet Manager Steve Steedley, is no stranger to managing the complex logistics of one of Washington State’s largest fleets. So when the power line maintenance and construction company made the decision to incorporate natural gas vehicles (NGVs) into its business, Steve researched the market for about a year before making the purchase.

The company now runs 42 Freightliner M2 model trucks with the Cummins Westport 8.9L ISL G engine: 20 bucket trucks, 20 digger trucks and two fuel tankers. Each vehicle is being fuelled with cold liquefied natural gas (LNG) using the Westport iCE PACK™ LNG Tank System.

“We’re a homegrown company and it’s good for the [local] economy, getting the fuel from here,” Steve says. “It’s all around a good business -- from an economic standpoint and for keeping jobs at home.”

Potelco has over 1,300 employees – the company completes electrical line construction, cable television, gas pipeline, fibre optics, transportation, and telecom projects.

One of Potelco's 42 natural gas vehicles, powered by the Westport iCE PACK™ LNG Tank System filled with cold liquefied natural gas.

Training Day - Westport Dallas

As part of the recently-announced new Type A compressed natural gas (CNG) Collins Bus, with the Westport WiNG™ Power System, Westport Dallas staff organized a three-day training session with our partner installers from Olathe Ford during the last week of October. Olathe’s Jeff Johnson, Service Foreman, and Kevin Davis, Installer Technician, joined Westport’s Service Training Manager James Trott along with the Westport installation team on the factory floor to review several essential topics, skills and procedures.

James says the purpose of the training was twofold: an instructional course on how to build the bus and an update in service training on any new programs and diagnostic methods.

“We have a really strict protocol for quality control,” James says. “When they finish building the unit and drive it, they have to monitor the data, capture it, and send it back to us so we can verify it’s within specifications before they ship it.”

Westport's Stefan Yarbrough show's Olathe's Jeff Johnson and Kevin Davis installation and servicing procedures in the
Type A CNG Bus from Collins: here they learn how to remove hardware and start preparing to install the tank saddles.

Westport Participates in first NGV event in South Africa

Johannesburg, South Africa is host to the first ever NGV event in South Africa and the Sub-Saharan African region during NGV2014 South Africa Conference and Exhibition this week. As the most developed and influential country in the African region, South Africa is an emerging natural gas vehicle (NGV) market that shows promising growth potential with the availability of natural gas in neighbouring countries and government initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Today, in the state of Gauteng, there are about 385 taxis and buses already operating on compressed natural gas (CNG), with the Benoni Taxi Association committed converting 20 per cent of its fleet.

“We chose to hold this year’s event in South Africa because natural gas for transportation is already on the move there,” says Claudio Kohan, NGV Communications Group Director. “The government has initiated the National Climate Change Response flagship program which advocates CNG use and the Industrial Development Corporation will fund any associated infrastructure development projects through the Green Energy Efficiency Program.”