Piedmont Natural Gas bringing compressed natural gas station to Wilmington

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Piedmont Natural Gas has announced the opening of a compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in Wilmington, the 8th in North Carolina.

Located at 141 Sutton Steam Plant Drive, near the intersection of Interstate 140 and U.S. Highway 421 and conveniently accessible to Interstate 40, the station provides a convenient fueling stop for trucks, fleet vehicles and other vehicles that run on CNG.

The station features four fast-fill fuel pumps, can accommodate Class 8 tractor-trailer trucks and is accessible 24/7. For resiliency, a natural gas backup generator is on-site to help ensure reliability during hurricanes and severe weather.

“Compressed natural gas offers several advantages to traditional fuels, from fuel-cost savings to helping reduce vehicles’ carbon footprints,” Piedmont Natural Gas senior vice president Phillip Grigsby said.“The lower-cost, lower-emission CNG offered at our network of publicly accessible CNG stations can help companies and fleets meet their sustainability goals, and we’re pleased to make this fuel available to more motorists driving along the I-40 and I-140 corridors.”

Thanks to the domestic abundance of natural gas, the price of CNG remains below that of conventional vehicle fuels. With savings over conventional fuels such as gasoline and diesel, business fleets and the trucking industry have found CNG to be a cost-effective fueling solution. Approximately 50% of Piedmont’s own utility fleet consists of CNG-powered or CNG-capable vehicles, according to Duke Energy.

CNG also is a more environmentally friendly choice; natural gas vehicles are 90% cleaner than the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s current NOx standard. CNG emits up to 21% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than comparable gasoline and diesel vehicles. Many state and local governments also offer incentives to encourage the adoption of natural gas vehicles.

Piedmont Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, distributes natural gas to more than 1.1 million residential, commercial, industrial and power generation customers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Duke Energy is executing an aggressive clean energy transition to achieve its goals of net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas business and at least a 50% carbon reduction from electric generation by 2030 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The 2050 net-zero goals also include Scope 2 and certain Scope 3 emissions. In addition, the company is investing in major electric grid enhancements and energy storage, and exploring zero-emission power generation technologies such as hydrogen and advanced nuclear.