As the utility sector seeks to lower its carbon emissions, installed gas infrastructure poses a particularly difficult challenge. First, is the scale: in the US alone, gas utilities own and operate around 2.5 million miles of natural gas pipelines (US DOE). Millions of natural gas appliances warm the water, cook the food, and heat the air in households all over the world. The upfront cost of replacement of that infrastructure, with full electrification for instance, is enormous and will take many decades. Not to mention, electrification is not practical in all regions, and consumers also have their preferences. So, in the face of their carbon reduction goals, what pathways are utilities pursuing for their gas infrastructure?

One pathway receiving significant attention is hydrogen blending. Utilities around the world are pursuing pilots and demonstration studies to demonstrate the feasibility and safety of hydrogen blending at a range of blend rates. In this session, Darcy provided an overview of various natural gas infrastructure decarbonization pathways and outlined some of the challenges presented by hydrogen pipeline transportation. Then, SoCalGas provided their view of the hydrogen blending opportunity and described some of the pilots they have underway and planned in order to demonstrate its feasibility, which include their pilot project with HyET Hydrogen, one if the innovators we have available here in Connect.