Peoples Natural Gas, a subsidiary of Essential Utilities Inc. (NYSE:WTRG), is recognizing the 10th annual Infrastructure Week, May 16-20, 2022. This year’s theme, #LeadWithInfrastructure, spotlights the importance of investing in infrastructure and the need to accelerate the implementation of key projects that America needs. Peoples has been a leader in this arena consistently executing strategic capital investment to enhance the safety and reliability of its more than 15,000 miles of natural gas distribution pipeline infrastructure. Peoples currently has plans to invest approximately $423 million this year towards this commitment.
“We strongly believe capital investments from private companies can play a significant role in solving our nation’s infrastructure challenges,” said Christopher Franklin, chairman and CEO of Essential Utilities. “We are proud to play a leading role in providing solutions that enable us to improve customer service, safety and environmental impact across our natural gas operations. Infrastructure Week is an important opportunity to showcase our team’s work in improving the lives of our customers.”
A robust natural gas infrastructure is crucial to ensuring reliable delivery of natural gas to homes and businesses. Investments are necessary to maintain safety and reduce methane emissions. Peoples’ long-term infrastructure improvement plan (LTIIP) to replace 3,000 miles of pipe will play a major role in Essential’s overall effort to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions by 60% by 2035 from its 2019 baseline. This investment will also provide Peoples’ customers and communities with the continued safe and reliable delivery of natural gas to heat their homes and power their businesses.
Over the past two years, Peoples, under Essential, has invested $700 million in infrastructure improvements, including hundreds of miles of pipe replacement. This year, infrastructure projects are planned in to ensure safe and reliable natural gas delivery to each customer throughout 270 townships and municipalities spanning 29 counties. Some of the largest projects taking place are highlighted below.
In 2020, Peoples Gas began a 7-year effort in southwestern Pennsylvania to replace more than 300 miles of bare steel pipelines, known as the Goodwin and Tombaugh system. Peoples is replacing the existing bare steel with modern plastic pipe, which will protect the environment by reducing methane emissions and provide a new level of customer service that the area has never experienced.
In 2021, Essential Utilities invested a record of more than $1 billion to improve water and natural gas infrastructure systems and replaced or retired 470 miles of aging gas and water mains. Essential remains committed to ongoing record levels of infrastructure replacement and anticipate investing approximately $3 billion through 2024 towards this commitment.
About Peoples
Peoples, an Essential Utilities company, provides natural gas service to approximately 750,000 homes and businesses in Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky. Peoples is committed to our customers, our employees, our environment, and to the regions we serve. For more information about Peoples, visit www.peoples-gas.com and follow Peoples on social media @peoplesnatgas.
About Essential
Essential is one of the largest publicly traded water, wastewater and natural gas providers in the U.S., serving approximately 5 million people across 10 states under the Aqua and Peoples brands. Essential is committed to excellence in proactive infrastructure investment, regulatory expertise, operational efficiency and environmental stewardship. The company recognizes the importance water and natural gas play in everyday life and is proud to deliver safe, reliable services that contribute to the quality of life in the communities it serves. For more information, visit http://www.essential.co.
