India’s drive to adopt natural gas as a major energy source has flow on benefits for clean transportation, illustrated this week by a policy announcement from the national oil and gas regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) that supports the distribution of natural gas through Cascades (racked CNG cylinders) and Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) daughter booster stations across the country.
The directive reportedly makes it somewhat easier to secure government licences and clearances, and brings city gas networks under the ambit of the Essential Commodities Act.
According to New Indian Express, the directive states “Entities desirous of supplying/distributing natural gas through cascades to specific customers having requirement of less than 50,000 mscmd or setting up of CNG daughter booster stations (DBS), in an area may apply to PNGRB.”
There are currently 10 States of India that are not connected to piped gas supply. The regulator will examine applications for cascade supply on case by case basis and may grant NOC/permission for setting up the network.
The CNG mother-daughter station concept has evolved in areas without connection to pipeline gas, whereby the connected mother station is set up with sufficient compressor capacity to supply mobile natural gas cascades to non-connected daughter stations, a virtual gas network.
