New Canaan is poised to save money under a plan that will see the current heating oil supplier for the town and schools introduce a “dual fuel” system in which propane gas becomes available, officials said Monday night. By burying propane tanks and using the infrastructure already in place for fuel oil heating, the district will be able to switch back-and-forth between the energy sources based on market prices, members of the Utilities Commission said during their regular meeting, held at Town Hall. “The bad news is that it means that there will be no natural gas expansion in New Canaan,” Commissioner Scott LaShelle said. “The schools are clearly an anchor tenant for any utility, and as we know from sitting here on this commission working with Yankee Gas [now Eversource] for a solid four years—and the first selectman would say we have been working with Yankee for longer, they have shown an inability to deliver that product to us.”
“Without those anchor tenants, we are not going to get natural gas downtown, we are not going to replace the propane tanks that are downtown, we are not going to bring natural gas to restaurants, we are not going to bring natural gas to residents to save them money, because Yankee will never com here for residential homeowners.”
The development puts to bed frustrating, go-nowhere efforts dating back several years to work with the utility and make natural gas available in downtown New Canaan. Longer-term plans to see Eversource offer it to residences in phases never materialized.
