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Compressed natural gas station

Our compressed natural gas (CNG) station in southwest Winnipeg provides a back-up supply of natural gas to over 293,000 natural gas customers across southern Manitoba.

The CNG station allows us to respond in emergencies, plan outages for repairs without a disruption in supply, and provide a safe and more reliable distribution network for our customers.

How a compressed natural gas station works

The CNG station is located southwest of Winnipeg, close to most of our natural gas customers.

A CNG station looks similar to a gas station. If supply is disrupted in a natural gas line, CNG tube trailers can be filled with compressed natural gas and driven to the site. The transport truck connects to a local injection point in the distribution system and natural gas is restored to the customer while repairs are undertaken.

The need for a back-up supply became evident after an incident in Otterburne in January 2014 on TransCanada Corporation’s pipeline. Over 4,000 homes and approximately 15,000 people in south-central Manitoba were left without natural gas for days. Our electrical system was strained, as people heated homes with electric space heaters and stoves.

We can mobilize CNG trailers to inject natural gas into the local distribution system, which helps maintain pressure in the system and augments gas service to customers in cases where there may be an issue with the main pipeline.

We have multiple trailers that can operate in a rotation like we did in Dauphin in October 2021 due to a third-party damage to the Minell Pipeline.