The natural gas vehicle (NGV) and the new high consumption business plans, the two greatest challenges of this financial year
Towards high consumption
The high consumption business plans have been implemented, along with more than 15 collaborating companies, which has led to a 26% increase with respect to 2014.
Accordingly, this year it was necessary to put in place the network of the Julio Palacios local area in the Fuencarral district, where there has been an increase in high consumption installations (residential boiler rooms) for supplying the power associated to that area.
As milestones relevant to this financial year, an important element is the signing of agreements with the Soto del Real prison and with the AMDA (Madrid Automobile Dealers Association), for the transformation of paint booths to natural gas.
Towards inorganic growth
The purchase in the 2015 financial year of more than 230 supply points from supplier companies of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the towns of Talamanca del Jarama and Guadalix de la Sierra, is a commitment to the growth of Madrileña Red de Gas in the Community of Madrid. The transformation of LPG plants to natural gas has led to improvements and enabled greater usage of the energy thanks to the use of one fuel – natural gas – more economical and cleaner due to its composition. Natural gas has a greater proportion of hydrogen/carbon, does not contain solid particles and generates less carbon dioxide (CO2) than petroleum and its derivatives, such as LPG:
In addition, the existence of sulphur dioxide (SO2) is negligible, and it generates less emissions of nitrogen oxide (NOX) produced during combustion.
Towards the natural gas vehicle
Two new compressed natural gas (CNG) supply stations have been put into service, with one located in the sheds of the Autocares Herranz company in the town of San Lorenzo in El Escorial, and the other in the Moncloa-Aravaca district; the latter has public access.
Furthermore, we have extended the supply facilities of Grupo Ruiz, with 17 new buses added to its fleet, which makes a total of 60 buses running on CNG in this company.
Following this success, Madrileña Red de Gas has a modern and environmentally friendly fleet to which we continue adding new models of cars and vans. Our technicians and operators already have a total of 32 vehicles at their disposal running on CNG.
In this ongoing commitment to the use of natural gas as an alternative to other fuels, and in collaboration with energy service companies identified with the CNG implementation project, Madrileña Red de Gas participates in the bidding competition promoted by Madrid City Council for the concession to operate CNG refuelling stations (gas stations) within our distribution area. This initiative is not only in response to the importance of this fuel in terms of its efficiency, but also – and even more significantly – in response to the environmental importance that its use entails.
On the other hand, the signing of a collaboration agreement with SEAT and Volkswagen-Audi for the development and promotion of CNG vehicles will enable joint actions on sustainable mobility to be taken, both on the technological and the energy aspects.