Also on Monday, March 1, the ICC Published the 2021 Group A code change agenda that can be accessed at this link. The International Fuel Gas Code (IFGC) is on the agenda this year. The Hearing Schedule is as follows:

AGA BECS staff has begun the process of reviewing all the proposals, not only to the IFGC, but to all the I-Codes that are included in the Group A series of I-Codes that include the International Residential, Fire, Building, Plumbing , Mechanical, etc. codes. We also request that members also take the time to review the proposals and list any that impact the direct use of natural gas. We will provide a list of significant proposals prior to the hearings. The IFGC hearing is scheduled to begin a noon on Sunday, April 25. BECS Committee members who serve on the IFGC Code Change Committee are Chris Byers, Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Kevin Carney, SoCal Gas, Ralph E. Euchner, Dominion Energy North Carolina, Bill Hamilton, UGI  Utilities, Inc., Andrea L. Papageorge, Southern Company Gas, and Jason Stanek, Metropolitan Utilities District. .

 

On Wednesday, March 3^rd, the ICC Board of Directors voted to change the code development process for the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) to a standards development process that moves the process to a committee approach for a final vote rather than an on line final vote by eligible ICC members. In its announcement, the ICC Board, this new process “would allow for additional time for debate, additional avenues to reach consensus, and a continuous maintenance cycle to facilitate the IECC’s ability to keep up with the pace of changing technology.” AGA is pleased with the change that removes the governmental consensus vote in favor of a committee style that will help resolve major voting issues that occurred during the past code development process for the IECC.  The ICC also announced that its new framework will provide optional requirements aimed at achieving net zero energy buildings, plans to establish an Energy and Carbon Advisory Council of governmental and industry leaders, which is intended to help assist communities in meeting their energy efficiency and emissions reductions goals.  Additional information on the change to a standards development process for the IECC can be found online at executive summary ,  executive summary and full framework . AGA BECS staff is continuing a review of the change in the development process and will continue to be engaged with the ICC on all of the I-Codes that impact the natural gas industry.

Note that only the IECC is moving to a standards development process.

 

 

The recent widespread power outages in Texas point to the dependency of many Americans upon electricity supply to heat their homes and provide hot water, even for natural gas customers.  Many residential models of conventional natural gas storage water heaters, space heaters, and cooking appliances do not require electricity supply to operate.  However, most residential central furnaces and hot water boilers, and virtually all new models of these appliances, require electricity supply to ignite natural gas burners, maintain combustion, and distribute either warm air or hot water for space heating.  Additionally, high efficiency storage water heaters likewise require electric power.  AGA Codes and Standards staff  has been following this evolution of residential appliances for decades, but in 2019 Codes and Standards began to examine technologies that would “self-power” space heating and water heating appliances and assist in developing product safety standards coverage for these appliances.  Self-powered appliances provide sufficient electrical capacity to operate ignition and burner systems and heat distribution, including forced air heating and hot water, and in rare instances may provide excess power for other domestic uses.  The objectives of self-powered appliances differ from other approaches such as “combined heat and power” since power generation capacity is focused upon heating appliance needs, eliminating the difficult task of matching household electrical and heating requirements in optimizing system designs, that face residential or “micro” CHP systems (mCHP) product development.  Also, since most of the available natural gas technologies are heating dominant over power generation when employed in residential applications. Since the initial AGA activity on standards, technology incorporation into prototype appliances has progressed sufficiently for units to go to the field for assessing operating efficacy, configuration optimization, and consumer and service acceptance.

 

Some BECS Committee members have suggested soliciting AGA utility member interest for supporting field testing of the most promising technologies incorporated into conventional space heating and water heating applications.  To that end, member companies would consider supporting field testing in the 2021-22 heating season. Based upon discussions with technology experts, the self-powered systems can be optimized in a variety of ways to meet local and regional needs, and to that end, configurations of the self-power technology in end uses (i.e., as forced air space heating or hot water boiler systems, or hybrid appliances) would be based upon regional requirements.  At this time, BECS members have suggested three regional markets:  Texas with forced air space heating and water heating applications dominating, Northcentral Midwestern U. S. with force air space heating dominating, and Northeastern U. S. with hot water boilers and water heating dominating and offsetting grid electricity costs.  Of course, all AGA members are welcome to participate in field testing, although specific utility support in form of in-kind and financial support would be expected.  It is  anticipate that approximately 100 field test units would be available for the 2021-22 heating season start of testing.  Preliminary expressions of interest can be made to [email protected] or [email protected].  More specific information in the form of a solicitation prospectus will be developed if sufficient interest in field testing is received.

 

 

The Staff Workshop, discussed in last week’s “Friday Update,” was led by CEC staff and covered the objectives, intended scope of the study, and questions of CEC staff for stakeholder consideration.  AGA’s Ted Williams participated in the question and answer opportunity provided via the “chat” function of the Workshop webinar platform.  Questions and comments via voice were also allotted during the question and answer period.  No opportunity to present materials by attendees was provided.  An annotated outline of AGA comments on the Workshop is being prepared which will be used to prepare formal comments on the event.  In the course of the Workshop, AGA staff posed nine technical questions of CEC staff pertaining to how CEC would go about undertaking the study.  CEC staff was unable or unwilling to provide complete answers to the AGA questions, repeatedly suggesting that it would be up to the CEC funding applicant to provide the requested information in proposal form.  Among the issues that AGA will raise in the comment are the following:

 

 

 

 

 

AGA will provide more specific comments on the process required and factors needing to be covered in the study to approach minimum levels of rigor and validity.  Written comments on the Workshop are due to CEC by March 17^th.

 

As a reminder, in response to the growing interest in introducing hydrogen into the natural gas system and its end use appliance and equipment compatibility with these blends in maintaining performance and durability, AHRI has scheduled this webinar where results of natural gas/hydrogen testing and analysis will be presented.  Results will be presented on the exploratory testing on four domestic appliance categories jointly sponsored CSA Group/AHRI/AGA exploratory testing performed by Appliance Engineering, Inc. and a  second analysis of natural gas/hydrogen blends performed by Enertek International of the U. K. under AHRI sponsorship.  AGA and CSA Group staff will present findings of the Appliance Engineering testing, and Enertek International will present its analysis results.  Additional presentations from selected AHRI members on issues related to appliance operation on natural gas/hydrogen blends are planned for the program.  Additional testing needs and test programs under development will be described to conclude the program.  Those interested in participating in the webinar can register here.  Note that while the announcement is issued by AHRI, the webinar is open to all interested industry participants.  AGA encourages fuel gas suppliers, including natural gas utility representatives and propane suppliers, to participate.