On May 14, 2007, OCTAs Board of Directors approved the environmental documents and selected Trillium for design, construction, operation, and maintenance facility modifications located at the Orange County Transportation Authoritys (OCTA) Garden Grove Bus Base located at 11790 Cardinal Circle, Garden Grove, CA. OCTA is to operate this station for five years and is committed to an annual minimum usage for this station of 1,327,088 diesel gallons (DEG) of natural gas dispensed. OCTA is one of the nations largest transit agencies with a clean-air fleet. Ninety-five percent of the buses in OCTAs fleet are fueled by clean natural gas (CNG) and liquefied national gas (LNG). The clean air fleet helps reduce air emissions and the need for higher polluting fuels, such as gasoline and diesel.
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A performance-based scope of work was developed and a request for proposals was released December 2006 in order to secure a single, qualified vendor to design, construct and maintain a new CNG fueling station. On May 14, 2007, OCTAs Board of Directors approved the environmental documents and selected Trillium for design, construction, operation, and maintenance of CNG fueling station at the Garden Grove Bases. On August 1, 2007, the Notice to Proceed was issued to Trillium for the design and construction of the CNG fueling station. Trillium submitted design drawings to City of Garden Grove on October 25, 2007 for plan check. Construction permits received from the City of Garden Grove on February 5, 2008. Construction work began on February 6, 2008. Major CNG equipment was delivered to the site on June 30, 2008. On October 31, Trillium began commissioning of the CNG equipment and started fueling and safety training for OCTA employees. On December 17, 2008, Trillium successfully completed the performance test and began the Operation and Maintenance phase of the project. During design, Trilliums electrical engineer made a recommendation to Southern California Edison (SCE) that the site transformer is to be increased to a 3750 KVA transformer. During discussions with SCE, Trillium was notified that SCE intended to install a 1500 KVA transformer. Trillium disagreed and suggested a minimum of a 2500 KVA transformer. As a result, the SCE proceeded to install a 1500 KVA transformer. During start-up of the CNG facility in November 2008, Trillium noticed that some voltage drops were present during the compressor startup and increasingly more significant as the second compressor started. Trillium reported these voltage drops to SCE. In early December 2008, SCE notified Trillium that a calculation error was made and that a 2,500 KVA transformer was required. Operation of the CNG station was limited to one CNG compressor, except for the performance test, until a new 2,500 KVA transformer was installed on January 17, 2009.
A three-transit dispenser CNG fueling station was successfully designed and constructed allowing the Orange County Transportation Authority to own and operate up to 180 CNG-fueled 40-foot transit buses at the Garden Grove Bus Base. The CNG station will allow the OCTA to operate up to about 180 CNG buses out of the Garden Grove bus base. The CNG buses are replacing older diesel buses with at least 4 g/bhp-hr NOx emissions. The CNG buses operating at the Garden Grove Bus Base are a mix of 1.2 g/bhp-hr NOX engines and 0.2 g/bhp-hr NOx engines. These buses travel about 50,000 miles per year.
On December 17, 2008 Trillium successfully completed performance testing of CNG equipment and Contractual obligations for design and construction of the CNG station were complete at that time. Remainder of the 10-year operation and maintenance contract will continue until December 2018. A three-transit dispenser CNG fueling station was successfully designed and constructed allowing the Orange County Transportation Authority to own and operate up to 180 CNG-fueled 40-foot transit buses at the Garden Grove Bus Base. As of June 2009, there are 42 CNG buses operated at this location, with 35 CNG buses in service on a daily basis. These replace 10 to 20 year old diesel 40-foot transit buses. The fueling station is not for public use.
Currently, 42 CNG transit buses use the CNG station, with an average of 35 CNG buses in service on a daily basis.