Mark Your Calendar:  BECS Plans Webinar/Workshop on Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) for Tuesday, April 27^th With a Repeat Second Session on Wednesday, May 5^th.

UPS systems can provide power to electricity consuming end uses during periods when grid power is lost such as during the widely publicized February 2021 Texas power outage.  In the case of the Texas outage, consumers using natural gas for space and water heating in appliances that require electricity lost heating functionality as long as the grid power was unavailable.  To address these gas customers, UPS systems may provide sufficient electrical supply to operate the heating appliances and distribution systems for hours after loss of grid power.  However, conventional household UPS systems are expensive and many times call for meeting complex installation code requirements.  The Webinar/Workshop will discuss optimized UPS systems for running gas-fired heating appliances, reducing these system costs and eliminating most installation issues.  The webinar portion of the one-hour event will cover supplemental power demands, recent experiences of power supply disruption, and available and anticipated future solutions that consumers can implement, while the workshop portion will focus on gathering information on technical requirements and consumer considerations in deploying UPS as a solution to meet consumer needs.  Complete information on the two Webinar/Workshop session and how to participate are shown in the attached announcement slide.

DOE is inviting public comments by May 21, 2021.  By law, DOE is required to issue its determination following the publication of an updated edition of Standard 90.1. DOE reports that “more information, including supplemental energy and cost savings analysis, is available via the DOE Building Energy Codes Program. Learn more “.

AGA BECS staff continues to review the analysis and assessing its impact on the direct use of natural gas applications.  Of particular interest is the fact that DOE performs both a “source and site energy analysis” that supports AGA’s long standing position that source energy must be included in any determination of total energy use and levels the playing field when evaluating energy consumption between natural gas and electricity usage.  Once finalized by DOE, by law, states will have two years to adopt this new edition or provide justification why it will not do so.

 

To further develop and deploy the new draft NFPA Standard 715, “Standard for the Installation of Fuel Gas Detection and Warning Equipment,” BECS staff  is leading a working group of the NFPA 715 Technical Committee to explore cross-referencing of Standard 715 with established standards such as the ANSI Z223.1/NFPA 54, “National Fuel Gas Code” (NFGC).  The current scope of the NFGC does not support including requirements for installation of combustible gas detectors, but there is consideration of proposing a simple reference to NFPA 715 in the “Reference Documents” listed in the NFGC and Informative Annex material that, for the first time, would guide users to take appropriate action upon either smelling gas or hearing an NFPA 715 combustible gas detector or system activation.  This Annex material would both include consumer response to leaks of odorized fuel gas based on odor and, equivalently, combustible gas detection activation.  Requirements for installation of NFPA 715 compliant devices and systems would be more properly promulgated through building and fire codes.

 

While AGA staff did not file an appeal of ASHRAE Standard 62.2 , Addendum “a,” which would have effectively ban unvented gas space heaters, we provided testimony on two of five prevailing appeals that successfully led to disapproval of Addendum “a” at the ASHRAE Appeals Board hearing held last week.  AGA testimony and comments were made as a “guest” of the two appellants.  All of the successful appeals correctly identified procedural issues with the processing of Addendum “a,” on which AGA was a negative commenter on two successive public reviews.  AGA had also opposed Addendum “a” in the SSPC 62.2 voting prior to public review.  AGA is exploring with industry allies, a proactive approach for addressing unvented gas space heaters and alleged airborne emissions issues, including modest mitigating measures that can be implement in the installation codes including the NFGC.  Any such proposals will need to be approved by the BECS Committee and submitted to the NFPA and Z223.1 consensus processes no later than June 1, 2021.

 

BECS staff assisted One Gas in reviewing proposed amendments for adoption of the 2018 edition of the International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) and provided initial draft language for alternative coverage of core natural gas issues, such as implementation of federally-developed source energy ratings tools for residential and commercial buildings and for source energy-based calculations of emissions.  Specifically, the proposed inclusion of DOE’s Home Energy Score was proposed for baseline evaluation of residential baseline designs and improvements in the residential performance path, and EPA Energy Star for Commercial Buildings rating and criteria was proposed for commercial buildings, both being alternatives to existing and proposed modifications for site energy-based performance approaches such as Energy Rating Index (ERI).  This approach to including source-based metrics can be repeated in other state and local jurisdictional proceedings covering IECC adoption, including adoption of the 2021 IECC.  AGA looks forward to working with AGA member companies in jurisdictions facing similar IECC adoption proceedings as a means of both blunting anti-natural gas measures proposed in amendments such as electrification measures and promoting the advantages of the  direct use of natural gas by emphasizing source energy and full fuel cycle approaches.  As a selling point, source energy and full fuel cycle approaches provide the only current approaches that can lead to comparing building designs on potential carbon emissions impacts and that, in the case of tools recommended to One Gas, are developed and supported by established federal government programs.

 

Culminating from years of standards development work, this week ASTM approved Standard D8080-21, “Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Used as a Motor Vehicle Fuel,” covering heating value limits including higher heating value (HHV), lower heating value (LHV) and methane number minimums, trace constituent limits including sulfur species, and other chemical and physical limits.  Under the scope of the standard, hydrogen blends in natural gas are not recognized, and hydrogen limits are set at a 0.3 percent volume fraction.  Background of the requirements have been discussed in detail in previous “Friday Updates.”  Currently, Standard D8080-21 is being prepared for publication.  Final technical requirements will be discussed at the upcoming BECS Committee meeting task force session on NGV Research Issues and NGV America Technology and Development Committee working group session on gas quality.