Hawaii Gas wants to add renewable natural gas to its mix
Hawaii Gas is looking to replace most of its current fuel base with renewable natural gas, an executive with the state’s lone regulated gas utility confirmed to PBN Friday.
The company, which is owned by New York’s Macquarie Infrastructure Co. (NYSE: MIC), has issued a request for proposals to purchase raw biogas and, or, bio-methane, also referred to as renewable natural gas, in Hawaii or elsewhere.
Hawaii Gas is trying to figure out where it can get these sources from and at what price.
“In Hawaii, what I’m hoping is that all the counties that have biogas and wastewater will let us use those products and tell us how much they want for those products,” Joseph Boivin, senior vice president of business development and corporate affairs, told PBN. “On the West Coast and Canada, there are a couple of utility companies that customers can purchase renewable natural gas.”
However, he noted that in Canada or California, the cost is significantly higher than regular natural gas.
Hawaii Gas is seeking proposals from suppliers who can provide renewable natural gas in increments of up to 8,000 million British thermal units per day, which amounts to about 10 ISO containers of liquefied natural gas per day.
“That amount represents our daily demand for gas energy on Oahu,” Boivin said. “We want to see what the market opportunities are. If we were to get all of the local [supply] from the counties, we could achieve between 15 percent and 20 percent renewable [for our fuel supply].”
No major upgrades would be needed to incorporate renewable natural gas, which would be added to the company’s synthetic natural gas and LNG sources.
The plan, which would be for a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years, still needs the approval from the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission. Proposals are due by March 7.
Hawaii Gas also is exploring the development of potential sources of locally-produced renewable natural gas and wants landowners and developers to contact the company.
Renewable natural gas, like other sources of renewable energy, can be intermittent, and to offset this intermittency, it could be blended by LNG.
Hawaii Gas has selected an international company for its $300 million LNG bulk shipment project, as first reported by PBN.