press releases
Contact: Scott Bolden, sbolden@naruc.org
NARUC Announces Natural Gas Partnership with U.S. Department of Energy
WASHINGTON (July 17, 2020) — The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has initiated a new Natural Gas Partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy.
Building on the success of the NARUC-DOE Natural Gas Infrastructure Modernization Partnership, the new partnership will continue to facilitate the exchange of information on emerging technologies and investments in natural gas for electricity generation and thermal load.
The NGIMP was established in 2016 and remained active through June 2020. The partnership convened state regulators, federal agencies and other stakeholders to discuss natural gas pipeline leak detection and measurement tools. Partnership members also explored new technologies and cost-effective practices for enhancing pipeline safety, efficiency and deliverability. Under the NGIMP, NARUC produced numerous educational resources for state public utility commissions. Some of the most notable products from NGIMP include the following publications and resources:
The Natural Gas Partnership will leverage experiences from the NGIMP to continue cooperative educational efforts to assist commissioners on critical issues.
The Natural Gas Partnership will continue the NGIMP’s focus on emerging technologies in the natural gas sector, such as leak detection, predictive analytics, satellite and geospatial data, demand response and others. Further, the new partnership will build knowledge across public utility commissions on a wider range of important natural gas topics.
“The NGIMP was effective at engaging commissioners around critical natural gas infrastructure issues, including renewable natural gas, methane leak detection tools and state infrastructure replacement programs,” said Danielle Sass Byrnett, Director of NARUC’s Center for Partnerships and Innovation. “The new Natural Gas Partnership will expand its focus to a broader range of emerging natural gas topics, including cybersecurity investments, artificial intelligence, hydrogen production and natural gas infrastructure, liquefied natural gas and more.”
The Natural Gas Partnership will be chaired by Commissioner Diane X. Burman of the New York State Public Service Commission, who also chairs the NARUC Committee on Gas. She served as chair of the NGIMP for its entire tenure. Burman is looking forward to a host of partnership activities in the coming year, such as site visits, publication of white papers, technical workshops and other educational engagements with state regulators, the U.S. Department of Energy, National Laboratories and other key stakeholders in the natural gas space.
“I am truly honored to accept this appointment to continue collaborating with NARUC and the U.S. Department of Energy as chair of this new Natural Gas Partnership. The partnership will enable informative sharing about emerging technologies and examining critical issues around the transportation and consumption of natural gas that can improve safety, reliability, resilience, affordability and continued environmental stewardship of our natural gas infrastructure,” said Burman.
The partnership is supported by DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy through the NARUC Center for Partnerships and Innovation, with Senior Manager Kiera Zitelman serving as the primary coordinator and point of contact.
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About NARUC
NARUC is a non-profit organization founded in 1889 whose members include the governmental agencies that are engaged in the regulation of utilities and carriers in the fifty States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. NARUC's member agencies regulate telecommunications, energy, and water utilities. NARUC represents the interests of state public utility commissions before the three branches of the Federal government.