Settlement approved regarding Peoples Natural Gas incident that affected hundreds in Indiana County

INDIANA COUNTY, Pa. — The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved a settlement regarding the Peoples Natural Gas over-pressurization incident in Robinson, Indiana County.

On April 29, 2020, more than 200 homes were affected by what a spokesperson at the time called a “surge” in the gas line. In total, 220 houses had their gas shut off.

Channel 11 talked to residents who said their furnaces exploded and then caught on fire.

Peoples Natural Gas replaced 11 furnaces, 70 water heaters, one range, 194 furnace valves and 135 water tank valves due to the incident. Additionally, approximately 4,552 feet of steel pipe and 133 service lines were replaced, PUC said.

>> Gas shut off to over 200 homes; service to be restored Thursday

The settlement includes a $250,000 civil penalty and addresses shortcomings identified by the PUC’s independent Bureau of Investigation & Enforcement. These include failure to follow company procedures by technicians, insufficiently detailed training materials provided by Peoples Natural Gas and possible design flaws in the regulator station.

Per the settlement, Peoples Natural Gas will not attempt to recover the $250,000 civil penalty in any future rate case, PUC said. Just over $305,000 in costs to replace damaged private property will also not be recovered in future rate cases.

The settlement requires the company to review all regulator stations within its distribution system, prioritize improvement projects based on a risk model and implement procedural and training enhancements to prevent future incidents.

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