DC&SDC: Derry is Firmus’ ‘golden child’

The Derry area was described as the ‘golden child’ for gas conversion uptake by Paul Stanfield, Firmus Gas Director of Sales, Marketing &  Customer Operations at a meeting of the Derry City & Strabane District Council’s Environment & Regeneration Committee.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Jan 2021, 14:47 BST

Following a presentation to the Committee Mr Stanfield said: “It is the one area where most people want to convert and we are delighted with the reduction in carbon that natural gas has brought to Derry.”

Currently some 14, 427 customers in the Derry area have made the conversion to natural gas with Firmus, meaning a reduction of 47,763 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  Gas is available for a further 23,262 homes to connect.

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Sinn Féin Councillor Michael Jackson welcomed the progress of Firmus in terms of providing connections  to more people. However,  he raised the question of cost.

“When householders are making the decision, the key thing for them is cost,” he said.  “In relation to the conversion will customers expect an increase in price?”

Paul Stanfield responded: “We have applied for funding to the regulator and to the Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Project to assist householders to do the conversion from oil and solid fuels to natural gas.

“So essentially we take the funding and add our monies to that package and offer it to households to do the conversion.”

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Mr Stanfield also discussed the cost of gas saying; “We have had two reductions in the last 12 to 18 months and we saw the cost of gas brought down to an all time low.

“Prices have bounced up a bit now but we have held our price. The idea is to keep prices as low as possible. If we had to increase prices, wherever we can, we have brought them down again.”

Committee Chairman DUP Alderman Maurice Devenney asked whether all rural areas would be provided with gas.

Paul Stanfield explained to the Committee that ‘unfortunately there will be rural areas that will not be able to access gas’.

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He continued; “We would love to provide gas to all rural villages. We are looking at network extensions at the minute. It’s certainly something in our vision for the future but we would rather be straight and say that there will be areas we won’t be able to access.”

All Members agreed the progress made by Firmus in the area is positive one and a welcome investment.

 

Gillian Anderson

Local Democracy Reporter

Related topics:Derry