• In total, 147 families will benefit from their homes being converted to natural gas, a cleaner and more economically sustainable form of energy.
• The investment per housing unit will be €2,800 to be financed in full by Nortegas and the San Martín Foundation, the housing manager.
• This conversion, which is expected to be completed within a year, will improve the social housing’s energy efficiency.

Avilés, 6 August 2020.- Nortegas, the second natural gas distributor nationwide, has signed an agreement with Avilés City Council to convert 49 social housing units managed by the San Martín Foundation (FSM)/Avilés Municipal Housing Office to natural gas. Those housing units currently use electricity (59.2%), butane (38.8%) or diesel (2%). 147 people in total live in those 49 units as tenants, 46 of whom are under 18 years old.

The Mayor of Avilés, Mariví Monteserín, and Javier Contreras, the Nortegas CEO, signed the agreement during a ceremony held at the Avilés City Council’s Reception Hall in the presence of the Regional Housing Minister, Juan Carlos Guerrero.

Nortegas and the San Martín Foundation, whose mission is to provide decent housing for vulnerable households, will therefore finance 100% of the energy conversion of the housing. The average investment per housing unit will be €2800, including all the costs arising from the installation and connecting the service, with 80% financed by Nortegas and 20% by FSM.

In addition to these units, the new installation will benefit the 49 residents’ associations to which they belong, 20 of which do not have gas installed, as, thanks to this agreement, the gas supply will reach all the separate entrances and all the residents will be able to use the connection installed by Nortegas. The 29 residents’ associations that already have access to the city gas supply installation will enjoy improvements to the meter areas.

Nortegas and Avilés City Council are thus providing those housing units with access to natural gas, a sustainable form of energy that will allow those households to save on energy costs. The project will also eliminate more polluting fuels currently in use, such as diesel or coal.

Nortegas is constantly striving to identify opportunities in the autonomous regions where it operates to support the social and economic fabric there. In that regard, and in keeping with its commitment to drive local job creation, the distributor will contract installers from Avilés to carry out the conversion of the housing units to natural gas within a year. The first stage of the work is scheduled to get underway in September.

Another of Nortegas’s strategic goals is to foster partnerships with the local councils and institutions of Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country to boost the viability of more sustainable forms of energy. The distributor is likewise working on research and development projects relating to the circular economy, the different uses of natural gas for vehicles (NGV) and the opportunities offered by gases from renewable sources such as biomethane and hydrogen. These are seen as key pillars for the decarbonisation of the economy and the roadmap to attain the goal of being climate neutral set by the European Union.

Javier Contreras, the Nortegas Managing Director, stressed: “we are excited about this project, that we are launching together with Avilés City Council. Nortegas is strongly committed to the communities where we operate, such as Asturias, and one of our main goals is to improve the wellbeing of the society of which we are part. We are helping to create a more sustainable society and we driving its economic fabric through the different projects to promote natural gas as an energy alternative, both for homes and transport.

In turn, the Mayor of Avilés, Maríví Monteserín, pointed out that “it is a very important step to improve the energy efficiency, quality and comfort of the 49 units of the municipal housing stock. These homes will have natural gas – with the ensuing reduction of the amount of the energy bill -, and with the possibility of installing a heating system. This agreement also means work for companies in the sector in Avilés (boilerworkers, plumbers, etc.) which will carry out the installation. Furthermore, this will not only benefit the families living in those 49 housing units, but the whole residents’ association of each building will be offered free installation to access the gas network from the building entrance”.