Utility works to deliver more renewable natural gas to customers
LOS ANGELES—Southern California Gas Company recently announced the filing of a request with the California Public Utilities Commission seeking approval for its plan to offer renewable natural gas to its 21 million customers in Central and Southern California. Speaking with American Gas, SoCalGas Vice President of Customer Solutions and Strategy Sharon Tomkins said, “We hope to have a decision from the CPUC by the end of this year.”
Under the proposed program, which would be a first for the state, millions of Californians would have the opportunity to purchase a portion of their natural gas from renewable sources. The program is expected to create increased demand for RNG, which should help increase supply and lower costs over time.
If approved, the RNG program will be available to nearly all SoCalGas core residential and small commercial and industrial customers. Residential customers will be able to have some of their natural gas delivered from renewable sources, while commercial customers will be eligible to have all of their natural gas come from renewable sources or have renewable sources account for a percentage of their total gas use.
While the utility would like to see as many of its customers take advantage of the RNG option as possible, Tomkins said, “Even if only a small percentage of our customers opt to purchase RNG, that could still be a meaningful number.”
She told us, “The discussions we’ve had with our customers and other stakeholders have been positive—especially when they learn that RNG uses the waste from food, sewers and farms to generate energy and can actually take out more greenhouse gas emissions from the air than it generates as a fuel source.”
SoCalGas will purchase RNG for the program from producers, which will both reduce the amount of natural gas in its pipeline systems and help build the market for RNG. If SoCalGas receives CPUC approval, the utility plans to begin offering the program in 2020.