PG&E Helps Advance Accessibility to Renewable Natural Gas Sources for California Customers
January 13 2022 - 11:15AM
Business Wire
A first-of-its-kind interconnection system
bridges RNG-producing dairies and PG&E pipelines, removing
historic barrier between producers and customers
While most dairies in California are known for the milk and
cheese they produce, farms within Merced County are beginning to
produce a new and very different product by converting waste from
cattle into a clean, green, renewable source of energy. Under a
partnership between Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E),
Maas Energy Works and California Energy Exchange (CEE), manure
produced from thousands of cows will be converted to renewable
natural gas (RNG), further advancing California’s greenhouse gas
reduction goals and providing PG&E customers with yet another
source of renewable energy. This project was primarily funded
through the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Dairy
Biomethane Pilot Program, established as part of California’s
strategy to reduce emissions of short-lived climate pollutants,
including methane.
Marking a first for PG&E, RNG from Maas Energy’s facilities
in Merced began flowing into PG&E’s gas transmission system in
mid-December through a “mid-market” third-party pipeline. This
project effectively diverts methane that would have been released
into the atmosphere from dairies in Merced County and converts it
to RNG, a net ultra-low carbon emission fuel source. Approximately
55 percent of California’s methane emissions come from dairies and
livestock, according to the California Air Resources Board 2018
Greenhouse Gases Emissions Inventory.
“Our work with Maas Energy and California Energy Exchange has
enabled years of research and development to reach implementation.
Together, in partnership with the dairies, we’re able to take
greenhouse gas emissions out of the atmosphere and, in turn,
provide clean renewable gas to PG&E’s residential and business
customers, including the transportation industry,” said Chris
DiGiovanni, Director of Wholesale Marketing and Business
Development for PG&E. “PG&E was an early supporter of
California’s statewide goal to reduce methane emissions to 40
percent below 2015 levels by 2030, and projects like this are key
steps toward this effort.”
This project produces RNG (also known as biomethane) by
capturing methane at the source from 15 dairy farm partners in
Merced County, and conducting a process called anaerobic digestion.
From there, pipeline-ready RNG is transported to PG&E’s gas
system via CEE’s pipeline where it is introduced at a receiver
station near Panoche. The Maas Energy project, which includes gas
production and cleaning equipment, as well as the interconnection
facilities to move RNG from farms into the CEE and PG&E
transmission pipelines, was funded in part by incentives from the
CPUC under Senate Bill 1383 (Lara, 2016).
The private pipeline operated by CEE enables remote dairies with
the infrastructure to connect an economically viable source of
renewable energy to the PG&E pipeline system. Historically,
access and a lack of cost-effective alternatives to transport RNG
to PG&E’s pipeline system hindered otherwise viable
partnerships with dairies. Mid-market pipelines, such as the CEE
pipeline transporting RNG from the Maas Energy project, provide a
necessary solution to make methane capture a cost-effective source
of RNG for California.
“Maas Energy Works, and our 15 dairy family partners, are
grateful to PG&E for delivering our clean cow gas to the
market. Merced County is the nation’s second largest dairy county
and we expect this project will make Merced a leading producer of
renewable transportation fuels as well,” said Daryl Maas, CEO for
Maas Energy. “This effort prevailed through permitting, COVID,
construction challenges, and many other ‘first ever’ milestones.
PG&E’s team did a great job implementing a first ever
mid-market transmission through California Energy Exchange, and
ensuring the project successfully performed under the California
Public Utilities Commission’s biomethane programs, which were a
huge support to making this plan a reality.”
About PG&E
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E
Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is a combined natural gas and electric
utility serving more than 16 million people across 70,000 square
miles in Northern and Central California. For more information,
visit pge.com and pge.com/news.
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