Clean energy future includes natural gas, panel says

Powering the future with increasing amounts of renewable energy needs to include the reliability of natural gas, experts say.

During a panel discussion at the Edison Electric Institute’s EEI 2023 event in Austin on Tuesday, a panel of energy experts said using natural gas as part of a clean energy economy will be critical to balance all of the renewable energy on the electric system and ensure reliability. Getting to net zero carbon emissions, however, will mean incorporating carbon capture and sequestration in coordination with its use.

“The reality is that we really do need to have natural gas as part of the system,” said Frank Prager, senior vice president of Strategy, Security and External Affairs and Chief Sustainability at Xcel Energy. “One thing we knew at that time was we could get to very high levels of renewable energy and, frankly, we’re going to need a much higher level than our engineers ever thought possible years ago. But at some point, you need to have some level of dispatchable energy in order to make sure that you can maintain a reliable, affordable energy system.”

Prager said natural gas provides a balanced portfolio of generation sources that will be necessary in the future to support renewable energy sources like solar and wind.

“One of the big challenges we have … is making sure that we can continue to use natural gas to balance all that renewable energy that we have in the system,” he said. “Natural gas for us serves the same goals that it does for the rest of the industry: it provides a balanced portfolio. It helps us integrate renewable energy. It’s actually key to being able to integrate renewable energy, and it helps us maintain reliability.”

Allan Schurr, chief commercial officer for Houston-based Enchanted Rock, a company that designs and builds natural gas-based micro grids, said it uses natural gas to power backup generators.

“We provide a gas-based substitute for diesel backup generators for commercial industrial loads,” he said. “Those contingent assets can be dispatched by the grid operator during times of stress when those peaking needs are apparent – they can be fast starting, very clean burning. Instead of using diesel, we use obviously natural gas and other renewable fuels that can be either offsets or blended with hydrogen so that we can provide very clean, very fast-start, high-availability dispatchable capacity.”

Using natural gas adds resiliency to systems and provides a cleaner burning fuel than diesel while providing reliability, he said.

Natural gas also provides a path to decarbonization that is affordable, said Dr. Michael Webber, chief technology officer for Energy Impact Partners, a sustainable energy investment firm.

“For reliability purposes it seems cheaper to keep gas in the mix and move to carbon capture or carbon sequestration,” Webber said. “Because if you eliminate gas entirely you have to build something else, like batteries, or wind or solar or something, so the role of gas for getting us quickly, affordably and accurately to zero is under appreciated.”

Having natural gas as part of a portfolio of resources allows providers to meet the needs of industrial customers as well, said Drew Marsh, CEO and chairman of Entergy Corporation.

“Almost half of our sales today are industrial customers,” Marsh said. “It’s really important to us, and it’s really important for our customers, to have the capabilities to do what they want to do. Also it’s important for our customers to keep costs down. Gas is the best, most affordable way for us to provide reliable service that we need for our customers. So natural gas is going to be with us for a while, and it helps us transition reliably towards a cleaner future.”

However, getting to a point where carbon capture and sequestration is scaled to handle the use of natural gas is going to take time, said Brett Lewis, CEO and co-founder of Carbon America, a carbon capture and sequestration company.

“I think one of the key things that we’re going to have to see in order for these economic projects to really pencil economically, scale is going to be super important,” Lewis said. “Lowering the unit cost of transportation sequestration through scale, and proximity is going to be super important.”

The primary issue of the green economy will be ensuring reliability and resiliency, the panel agreed.

“From the consumer side of things, the more critical life functions you hang on to categories like transportation, the less comfortable and willing people will be to accept any sort of power quality or delivery issues,” said Richard McMahon, Senior Vice President of Energy Supply and Finance for the Edison Electric Institute.