Maine has many options and challenges ahead in the search for a pilot project to demonstrate the benefits of renewable power-to-fuel (PTF) facilities for the electric grid, a recent Public Utilities Commission report said.
“PTF facilities and the technologies that are available are highly operational and location specific,” which leaves a lot of open questions before a pilot is identified, said Matthew Rolnick, PUC staff analyst.
While there are extensive PTF studies and pilots in the U.S., most are relatively new and do not have results available yet, Rolnick said during a Feb. 15 Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee (EUT) meeting.
“It’s hard to know when those results will be coming online … so it’s still very early days,” he said.
Rolnick presented findings to the committee from its initial study of PTF pilot program feasibility, as directed by a Maine energy storage law enacted in June. The committee could use that report to inform a pilot program bill in the current session. (See New Maine Law Sets 400-MW Energy Storage Target for 2030.)
As defined by the law, PTF is the conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen, methane or “other fuel.” Possible benefits of PTF to the grid, Rolnick said, include avoiding renewable curtailment by redirecting excess generation to a hydrogen production facility and avoiding investment in transmission and distribution expansion and upgrades.
Generating hydrogen from excess renewable energy generation could support the electric grid while also reducing emissions associated with the thermal sector, the PUC said.
“There may be ways to use PTF to produce gases that could be injected into the existing natural gas infrastructure to provide carbon-free space heating to the roughly 50,000 Maine customers that currently use natural gas,” the report said.
In its review of PTF projects, the PUC identified a small pilot project in New Jersey that is demonstrating the production of hydrogen from solar and its subsequent blending into the gas distribution system. Developer New Jersey Resources (NJR) commissioned the project in October.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities approved cost recovery for that project, which NJR estimated will cost $6 million. Initially, the project will offset 180 tons of CO2 per year, the company said in its rate case filing.
Last year, the EUT committee considered but did not pass a PTF pilot bill (LD 9) introduced by committee chair Sen. Mark Lawrence (D). Maine-based Summit Natural Gas testified in support of the bill, saying PTF has the potential to make hydrogen from otherwise-curtailed wind energy in the state for injection into the gas system.
Increasing renewable energy in Maine is causing costly curtailments and the need for transmission investment, Summit said in its Aug. 27 comments to the PUC for the report. Building hydrogen facilities in constrained locations can reduce the impact of grid constraints and delay grid upgrades, the company said in response to a PUC request for information.
The Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) also supported the possible role of PTF in facilitating growth in the clean power sector, but it said in comments to the commission that it is “skeptical” of short-term investment in the technology. Among the nonprofit’s concerns is the risk of “inadvertently encouraging” reliance on fossil fuels.
CLF asked the commission not to recommend the legislature move ahead with a pilot, saying in Sept. 2 comments that the technology is “inarguably expensive.”
The Office of the Public Advocate agreed with the CLF’s assessment, saying that putting a high initial cost for emerging technologies on ratepayers is inconsistent with state law, according to Oct. 20 comments.
With respect to a PTF program, the OPA said, it’s not clear that Maine has “any unique attributes” that make it an “ideal” pilot host.
The PUC supported a pilot program in its report and suggested that the legislature could direct the commission to request proposals that can identify technology costs and benefits.