TSB for Blended Gas Analysis

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts on avoided gas cost calculations from increasing hydrogen and biogas content in pipeline quality natural gas. California EE programs must meet Total System Benefit (TSB) and Total Resource Cost (TRC) metrics. Underlying the calculation of these metrics is the Avoided Cost Calculator Tool (ACC). The ACC provides gas commodity prices, gas CO2 and Nox emissions factors, transportation costs, methane leakage rates, gas compression factors, and inflation rates to calculate the avoided costs from reducing natural gas use in equipment. However, these costs are for pipeline quality natural gas and are not adjustable to account for blends of biogas and/or Hydrogen into the pipeline quality natural gas. Therefore, the ACC in its current state cannot be used to accurately estimate the avoided gas costs for the aforementioned fuel blends. The goal of this project is to investigate the inputs to the CEDARS Cost Effectiveness Tool (CET) and provide suggested revised inputs to the model for: 1. Natural gas blended with biogas and 2. Natural gas blended with hydrogen up to 30% concentration.