Greening the gas supply & decarbonizing customers

PG&E is actively working to transition the gas system to transport and deliver cleaner fuels such as renewable natural gas (RNG) and hydrogen to help decarbonize PG&E’s operations and the energy used by our customers.

Renewable natural gas

PG&E is working to add RNG to the gas pipeline system in a way that is both safe and helps address climate change. RNG is a renewable energy resource mainly produced from dairies, non-hazardous landfills, and wastewater treatment plants but can also come from organic matter such as diverted food waste, forestry waste, agricultural crop waste, and wooden construction waste.

PG&E is working towards our goal to supply 15% RNG to our bundled residential and small commercial gas customers by 2030. Key steps have included:

• Filing our RNG Procurement Plan with the CPUC in 2022.
• Launching two competitive solicitations in 2023.
• Remaining engaged with RNG developers and actively participating in CPUC proceedings regarding the renewable gas standard program and biomethane procurement cost allocation during 2024. 

These proceedings are crucial for overcoming regulatory and market challenges regarding the availability and affordability of RNG. 

PG&E works directly with current and potential RNG producers as well as third-party pipeline operators who have upgraded and repurposed their pipeline assets to transport RNG to PG&E’s pipeline system.

PG&E receives RNG from numerous dairies onto the gas pipeline system and, in 2024, we interconnected four new RNG facilities, including the first landfill and food waste RNG producers. Combined, these new and existing interconnections provide over 3 billion cubic feet of RNG annually. PG&E anticipates the potential to receive 30 billion cubic feet of RNG annually onto the gas pipeline system by 2030 through a mix of sources including landfills, food waste, wastewater treatment plants, and dairy clusters.

Exploring opportunities with hydrogen

Hydrogen has several potential applications that can help decarbonize hard-to-electrify customers: it can be used as fuel for the transportation market (especially heavy-duty vehicles, marine, and rail), as long-duration energy storage, and with fuel cells for backup systems and microgrids.

PG&E is pursuing the nation’s first demonstration facility for transporting hydrogen and natural gas blends in gas transmission pipelines. The site is designed to prepare for the future of hydrogen by assessing transmission system readiness and gaining experience in safely introducing hydrogen into our existing gas infrastructure.

The facility, known as Hydrogen to Infinity (H2∞), is a large-scale project that plans to blend hydrogen and natural gas in a stand-alone transmission pipeline system. H2∞ will close gaps by providing California (and the nation) with long-term operational data on the impacts of hydrogen blending in natural gas transmission pipeline systems. 

Initial hydrogen blend levels for the system will start at 5% and increase up to 20% in the high-pressure gas transmission system to test the possibility of repurposing existing pipeline infrastructure for transporting hydrogen. Beyond the 10-year demonstration, PG&E intends to leave the equipment in place as an operating asset, provided that it can show (through the operational data) that hydrogen blending can be safely and reliably done in the natural gas system without impacting system integrity. 

Decarbonizing large gas customers and heavy-duty fleets

PG&E is proactively working with our hard-to-electrify industrial and large commercial customers by providing solutions to transition from emission-intensive fuels, such as coal and petroleum coke, to cleaner burning natural gas. Our efforts include providing back-up generation for electric grid reliability using natural gas as an alternative to diesel and pursuing policy changes to incentivize this choice.

In 2024, we interconnected a project for emergency electric generation to create grid reliability, reducing reliance on diesel back-up generation. We also supported customers needing natural gas for their production processes, leveraging our current gas infrastructure to reduce emissions at these facilities.

PG&E is also helping industrial and large commercial customers with hard-to-electrify heavy-duty fleets transition from diesel to compressed natural gas (CNG). We interconnected four third-party CNG fueling station projects in 2024.