CenterPoint Energy Pushes For More Homegrown Gas
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- In a CenterPoint Energy garage several high tech "noses" are ready to hit the streets.
"It's analyzing that air sample so if it picks up that methane signature we're looking for, it can tell us exactly where it was," explains the utility's leak detection foreperson, Lon Rosebrock.
One way to stop greenhouse gasses is to track down pipeline leaks. In the last nine years, the company's Picarro vehicles have helped cut by 25% the amount of natural gas rising into the atmosphere.
CenterPoint now hopes to take environmental stewardship a step further, with the proposed Natural Gas Innovation Act about to be introduced by the state legislature.
"We want to look toward new innovative technologies," says Ross Corson, CenterPoint spokesperson.
He's speaking about a plan that would capture bio gas emitted by dairy herds, municipal landfills, even wastewater treatment plants. The escaping and wasted methane gas are then purified and blended with natural gas pipelines leading to our homes.
"The methane emitted naturally from those sources, capturing that and converting it into renewable natural gas that is interchangeable with conventional natural gas," explained Corson.
The plan could also help spur investment in other pilot projects, such as stripping hydrogen gas from the state's abundant freshwater. That's done through an electrolysis process.
"Instead of getting natural gas from Texas and Oklahoma, it's actually made in Minnesota -- homegrown natural gas," added Corson.
As the legislation is currently written, CenterPoint's costs would be capped at five% of annual revenues. It is estimated that the alternative resource plan would add about $1 to the average customer's monthly natural gas bill.