Biomass

UGI Utilities to distribute renewable gas removed from Pennsylvania landfill

UGI Utilities to distribute renewable gas removed from Pennsylvania landfill

An electric and gas utility in Pennsylvania and Maryland has signed a deal to bring renewable natural gas from a landfill into its distribution system.

UGI Utilities Inc.’s agreement with Archaea Energy is the company’s first RNG supply interconnect agreement. The utility will accept RNG from the Keystone Landfill located in Dunmore, PA.

The RNG supply will be injected into UGI Utilities’ high-pressure natural gas pipeline serving its distribution system located in Lackawanna County, PA. The landfill gas, a byproduct of naturally decomposing materials in the landfill, will be processed and conditioned to meet UGI Utilities’ gas quality requirements.

“This agreement advances our strategy to position UGI Utilities as a leading provider of energy solutions that meet the environmental and social needs of our customers and our communities,” said Robert F. Beard, Executive Vice President – Natural Gas, UGI. “We look forward to expanding our portfolio of renewable energy offerings available to our customers across our service territories.”

The project is scheduled to become operational in September 2021.

When fully operational, the UGI Utilities system will be designed to take up to 16,000 mcf (thousand cubic feet) per day of RNG supply at a rate of up to 780 mcf per hour, making this the largest RNG supply point in the United States to-date. This supply point will be available for the company, as well as for natural gas suppliers operating on its system, for the purpose of supplying UGI Utilities customers.

Moving this RNG supply into the UGI Utilities distribution system reportedly will reduce the release of naturally occurring methane from the Keystone Landfill into the atmosphere. From an environmental perspective, accepting delivery of the RNG will reduce CO2 emissions that would otherwise occur by up to approximately 314,000 metric tons per year.

This CO2 reduction equates to removing the emissions from more than 67,000 passenger vehicles over the course of a calendar year.

Other power industry firms, such as Babcock & Wilcox, have participated in waste-to-energy power plant projects globally for years. Proponents believe the methane removed from landfills will exceed any emissions from the plant itself by a considerable margin.

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