National Grid boosts capacity of Riverhead natural gas facility to better handle peak demand

National Grid is more than doubling the capacity of a compressed natural gas facility in Riverhead, with ongoing construction work preparing to make it capable of injecting up to 24 tanker trucks of gas into the system at a time.

The project, approved by the Town of Riverhead and Suffolk County, is part of National Grid’s state-sanctioned plan to improve gas capacity across the region on the coldest, most heavily used days of the year, the company said.

The 5.3-acre site, which abuts a retail building-supply yard and sits across from the Riverhead Post Office along a Long Island Rail Road line, is listed on Suffolk maps as zoned for a gas regulation station.

The facility, which since 2019 has had the capacity to inject compressed gas from 11 trucks into the system at the plant at 8 Mill Rd., will more than double that with capacity for up to 24 trailers, to help meet demand, the company said in response to Newsday questions.

The ongoing work involves the removal of two legacy buildings at the site and underground cesspools, National Grid said, explaining that the work “represents an expansion to enhance reliability for customers on the East End of Long Island.” The work also includes construction of a new maintenance and control building, according to a company website about the work.

Compressed gas at the site is stored within the compressed natural gas trailers, which are “brought to the site as needed, typically during the coldest periods of the year when demand is highest,” National Grid spokeswoman Wendy Ladd wrote.

National Grid’s recently submitted gas planning document with the state includes a request for a new gas pipeline called the Northeast Supply Enhancement project into the lower New York region, including Long Island.

Ladd said even if the NESE project is approved by the state and built, with an additional 13% capacity increase into the region, tankers with compressed gas still will be needed.

“Even with the proposed NESE project, CNG facilities like this will continue to play an important role in providing backup and reliability for customers on the East End,” she wrote.

The Riverhead facility was previously owned by the Long Island Lighting Co., and became part of National Grid’s holdings when it bought KeySpan in 2007. Local officials in 2007 held a news conference at the Mill Road site, demanding answers from then-owner KeySpan about suspected toxins there after it appeared on a list of former LILCO gas facilities.

At the time, KeySpan officials downplayed any danger, noting that the site was never used to manufacture gas with coal and gasoline, as had been the case at large, contaminated MGP facilities at Bay Shore and Hempstead. A facility across the street in Riverhead previously was home to a Hortonsphere, a structure used to store natural gas; it was removed in 1998.

In addition to Riverhead, National Grid operates compressed natural gas sites in Farmingdale, Inwood and Glenwood. It also operates larger liquefied natural gas facilities in Holtsville and Greenpoint. The western Riverhead area is also home to propane tankers.

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.