Q: Why Don't Gas Stations Have Gasoline-Fueled Electrical Generators On Hand?

[Glassunion]

59. I have an inside track, so I'll tell you why.

I work for a company involved in retail fuel in the NYC metro area. Our locations are larger than your average station and the power requirements to run them are relatively high.

1. To install a generator large enough to operate the site can add up to 15% on the cost to build a site. So we instead contracted with a company to install portable generators in our fuel locations for just such an occasion. However we cannot afford enough generators to cover all of our locations, so we were limited to less than 10.

2. The generators that are large enough to run a location are generally only available in diesel or natural gas. Not every gas station in the NYC metro area is allowed to sell diesel or have natural gas available. There are local EPA rules or township regulations that forbid the sale of diesel in a given site, so diesel would have to be trucked in to keep a location running. Right now with supply issues that would be impossible. So only our sites with diesel are getting the generators.

3. There are also site issues. Real Estate in the NYC metro area is incredibly limited and there simply may not be enough room on the site to lay in a 27,000lb generator. The concrete pad has to be of certain dimensions and thickness to support the weight.

As a side note, we do have a permanent generator in one of our locations. It has been running since Monday night. There are thousands of gallons of gasoline in the ground we could pump out. However, the store remains closed as the township will not let us open. There is a sagging wire hanging over the entrance to the site and the cable company has not been able to tighten it back up yet. Our overlords at the township are assuming that somehow a cable TV wire sagging with 14' of clearance is going to kill a customer. So the site sits with us unable to serve our community that has no power.