Decarbonizing the gas network with renewable natural gas and hydrogen
Low-carbon fuels like renewable natural gas (RNG) and green hydrogen (hydrogen produced exclusively from renewable power sources) are a key part of building an integrated, reliable net zero energy network of the future.
National Grid plans to utilize RNG from existing sustainable biomass feedstocks across the Eastern United States, such as biogas created from wastewater treatment plants, landfills, food waste, livestock manure and others. We are also researching and analyzing how renewable hydrogen production from generation of large-scale renewable resources like offshore wind can be supplemented into our gas networks as a zero-carbon fuel.
Targets
We are currently facilitating over a dozen customer requests to produce and interconnect about a total of 10 million dekatherms/year of RNG. This amount of RNG would be equivalent to meeting the annual demand of approximately 80,000 homes in the northeast that use natural gas for heating. It also equates to displacing nearly 53,000 metric tons of CO2 from the abatement of geologic natural gas.
We intend to have over 30 million dekatherms of our gas supply come from RNG by 2030, three times the amount in the current queue and equivalent to 5% of our annual delivered gas supply.
We are spending $1.35 million dollars annually to assist RNG interconnections to our gas network in our downstate New York region and an additional $2 million for interconnections in our upstate New York region.
Achievements to date
We established RNG interconnection guidelines to support interested providers and to facilitate RNG growth in our states.
We launched a hydrogen blending study with NYSERDA and Stony Brook University to research and analyze the technical, environmental, and safety details of delivering hydrogen through our pipelines.
Pending final regulatory approval, we will partner with Standard Hydrogen Corporation to construct of a 1MW electrolyzer system that will produce and store green hydrogen and will make use of the inherent flexibility of hydrogen.
We are members of the Low Carbon Resources Initiative (combined effort led by both the Electric Power Research Institute [EPRI] and the Gas Technology Institute [GTI] non-profit research organizations) which is a five-year initiative to develop and demonstrate key clean energy technologies and decarbonization solutions including green hydrogen, bioenergy, and renewable natural gas.