SaskPower’s Post

Earlier this year, INGAA released a set of Winter Preparation Commitments to help ensure existing natural gas pipeline systems can meet the contracted needs of our customers, especially during extreme weather events. Winter preparations alone, however, will not be sufficient to meet the United States’ future energy needs. Ultimately, the country needs more natural gas infrastructure to meet the growing need for energy reliability. Read more: https://lnkd.in/egV_Uqba

INGAA President & CEO Amy Andryszak sat down with Carolyn Davis from Natural Gas Intelligence to discuss the need for permitting reform, gas-electric reliability, pipeline safety reauthorization, and more: “For the interstate gas capacity, it “hit a low bar for 2023,” Andryszak noted. “It’s not that there’s less interest in infrastructure. That’s not the issue. It is becoming increasingly difficult to build this infrastructure. And increasingly, it’s become difficult in multiple ways…This is where permitting reform would make a difference.” Read more: https://lnkd.in/etbWep7i

The price of Natural Gas went negative at some Hubs in the South due to Oil Drillers increasing their production to capture the high oil prices, but the byproduct is excess Natural Gas. Past practice was to simply flare this off when supply exceeds demand but with new rules in place, that practice is no longer allowed and rightfully so. This conversation about increasing Natural Gas Infrastructure should be happening everywhere because we have Hundreds of Years of Natural Gas supply in the Northeast but no way to access it, and we have trillions of BTUs being wasted as a byproduct of oil production that could instead be heating homes, and increasing electricity production and more. This topic should be at the forefront of Infrastructure Investment, Regulatory Reform, Climate Initiatives and Capital Investment for its benefits to all of these groups as well as the end users who will gain access to cheap and reliable energy.

Study highlights misalignment of gas infrastructure planning and decarbonization goals https://lnkd.in/dwpjBFRn What are your thoughts? 👍 or 👎?

The Basin Electric Board of Directors recently approved the installation of two fuel gas heaters at Lonesome Creek Station, one of Basin Electric’s dispatchable generation facilities located near Watford City, North Dakota. Lonesome Creek is fueled by natural gas via the Northern Border Pipeline. Investing in fuel gas heaters for the natural gas line is essential to mitigating risks caused by condensation. Read more: https://bit.ly/4ePEfMN

Thanks to underground infrastructure, natural gas continues to be the most 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 energy source. 🍃💡 In fact, during any given year, the American Natural Gas Association expects only 0.15% of natural gas users to experience a planned or unplanned natural gas outage. With this reliability, you can trust natural gas to keep your home powered and comfortable, even in severe weather conditions. 🌩 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gQKFJCmf

“Due to the changing configuration of the grid and recent emergency events, like Winter Storm Elliott, MISO and TVA have become increasingly focused on the need for additional coordination and planning to better ensure reliability in an emergency,” MISO said. “To that end, each has identified the need to purchase Emergency Energy from the other to maintain the reliability of each individual transmission system and, more generally, the integrity of the Eastern Interconnection.” https://lnkd.in/eRKWwyxn

What would the benefits be to the wind industry with a wider adoption of digital solutions when assembling bolted joint connections? In a typical wind turbine today around 10,000 bolts are assembled and all of them are critical to the structural integrity and long-term performance of the turbine, but for how many of them do we have real data records confirming how they were assembled or by whom and with what components.

Energy Transition - Rural Gas Co-ops On a post I shared earlier this week I mentioned the term gas co-op. I ended up with a few questions about what that meant. If you live in an urban setting you likely get gas from a private utility such as ATCO. They supply the infrastructure and you usually have a choice on the who you purchase the gas from as a marketer. The marketer uses ATCO to get their gas to your meter. In rural Alberta we have some private utilities such as Apex and ATCO but a large portion of the province is fed by co-ops. Back in the 60's when gas companies were hooking the larger towns and cities they did not view the rural areas as feasible. Too much infrastructure per user. Rural residents that wanted gas banded together to form cooperatives and plowed in their own systems. The one I belong to and am a Director of, Chain Lakes Gas Co-op, has been going since 1974 and allowed over 2000 users the ability to switch from coal, oil and propane to more convenient and lower carbon emitting natural gas. As more co-ops sprang up they formed a central body called the Federation of Alberta Gas Co-ops Ltd. This provides a central resource to maintain consistency in construction, safety, materials purchasing, etc. To have greater gas purchasing power the Federation formed Gas Alberta Inc. to be a customer owned trading entity. By combining the buying power of 75 co-ops they have better purchasing power than each co-op going separately. This answers the question newcomers to a co-op have of "Why cant I chose my supplier?". Because you are part owner of the supplier. Being a co-op means the shareholders are the customers. The co-op operates at a price point to break even on operating and maintenance costs. They do not exist to make a profit margin for investors. Because they are not profit driven means the co-ops generally are able to operate more economically for their customers. When you consider the transition from coal, fuel oil, and wood to gas required the better part of the last 60+years to develop the 120,000+km of network, it gives some indication of the time and effort required for the next energy transition. Full history on the Federation can be found here https://lnkd.in/g7iwR9Kh Link to Gas Alberta here https://lnkd.in/gV-ugPte #naturalgas #energytransition #renewables #canadianenergy

Natural gas is a vital part of everyday life for millions of Americans! From heating our homes to cooking our meals, it is a cost-effective, reliable, and efficient energy source. 🏡 Households using natural gas save around $1,100 per year compared to homes running on electricity alone. 💸 Plus, with it's vast system of underground pipelines, natural gas is less impacted by weather and external factors providing consistent and dependable service. Watch the video below to learn more about the many benefits of natural gas and how it is leading the way to a brighter and greener future! 🍃