IAPMO has issued the monographs for the next edition of the UPC and UMC that contain proposed changes to both documents that will be heard by the Technical Committees of both the UPC and UMC in May, As a reminder, both the UPC and UMC have coverage for installing gas equipment and components and is adopted in a number of western states including California and parts of Texas. Below is the meeting schedule for the UPC and UMC Technical Committees and access to the monographs for each code.

 

We will be reviewing the proposals that impact natural gas installation requirements and request BECS Committee members also review those provisions and provide feedback on concerns with those recommended changes.

As reported in previous “Friday Updates,” the Standard 715 TC had deleted in the “First Revision” ballot of the Standard, an allowance for detectors listed for an upper “must activate” threshold of 25% of lower explosive limit (LEL) that is consistent with the product certification limit used in UL Standard 1484, “Standard for Residential Gas Detectors,“ while retaining a 10% LEL threshold.  In its abstention vote on the First Revisions, AGA commented that the deletion would make obsolete currently available and installed combustible gas detectors listed to UL 1484.  In TC Task Group discussion of AGA’s comments and APGA’s negative vote on the First Revisions, AGA raised the corollary issue that since UL 1484 did not employ a parallel 10% LEL threshold, UL listed products would not be available for meeting the threshold performance requirements of NFPA 715 if it only retained the 10% threshold.  AGA has committed to the TC and AGA members that, as an UL Standards Technical Panel (STP) member, it will submit a proposal to UL to change the UL 1484 threshold to 10% LEL to help address inconsistencies between the NFPA and UL standards.  This represents an AGA compromise from previous positions on the “must activate” threshold.  The Task Group considering this issue agreed to review a proposal to reinstate the 25% threshold to maintain consistency with the UL standard until such time that the UL standard threshold is changed to 10% and UL listed products meeting that performance are available on the market.  UL listing and certification is key since while some detector products can currently meet the 10% threshold, that is not their listed performance, thus categorizing them as non-compliant to UL 1484 as published.  The proposal to reinstate the 25% threshold is being drafted by a “subtask group” of AGA staff and AGA member company representatives on the TC and has received verbal support from APGA.  A key concept of the proposal is to include the means for withdrawing the 25% threshold as a compliance alternative once the UL standard is changed and 10% threshold products are available on the market.  The subtask group is exploring options for this approach with NFPA staff and TC leadership.  One approach being considered is “sunsetting” the 25% threshold after a sufficient period of time for UL to implement changes in UL 1484, set a responsive effective date for the change, and list products to the 10% threshold. It is expected that the proposal may be completed as early as next week for the consideration by the full Task Group and before going to the TC.  In addition to the reinstatement of 25% LEL in the requirements, explanatory annex material will be proposed.

 

The ASTM Committee, D22, “Air Quality” will be discussing a “new business” item at its upcoming meeting this month covering development of a standard practice for conducting valid methane leakage measurements and quantification in the field, focusing mainly on leaks for below-ground and ground-level natural gas distribution facilities.  AGA BECS staff has received strong support from Raul Dominguez, South Coast Air Quality Management District and past chair of Committee D22, and J. David Hailey, Hailey Consulting and D03, “Gaseous Fuels” chair, for moving the initiative forward. David Hailey has done the bulk of the work in developing the current draft standard practice that will be discussed at the D22 meeting.  The committee leaderships believe that various standards related to measurement and quantification technologies will be likewise developed coming out of the D22 activities.  This week, Raul, David, and Ted Williams of Codes and Standards heard a presentation on airborne light detection and ranging (LIDAR) technologies currently being used by at least one AGA member company for identifying and quantifying distribution system leaks validated to high accuracy and precision.  The initiative to develop standard practice was led initially by Pam Lacey, AGA Chief Regulatory Counsel and was based upon work sponsored by NYSEARCH on natural gas system emissions qualification guidelines.

 

Following up on this week’s THyGA online workshop of hydrogen and natural gas appliances and AGA’s presentation of North American appliance testing work at the workshop, THyGA project leadership has invited AGA’s Ted Williams to serve on the fifteen-member Advisory Panel representative for the ongoing work.  The THyGA Project (Testing Hydrogen Admixtures for Gas Appliances), a European project sponsored by nine major natural gas and hydrogen commercial interests, “sets out to develop and communicate a detailed understanding of the impact of blends of natural gas and hydrogen on end use applications, specifically in the domestic and commercial sector.”  Presentations from this week’s workshop are not yet available but cover the following topics:

 

 

 

 

While the regulatory and standards structures of the European interests differ substantially from North American commercial and governmental involvement natural gas and the blending, or “admixing” of hydrogen, many of the technical challenges and research pathways are consistent between the two geographic markets.  While Europe has established a more aggressive strategy for introducing hydrogen into end use applications and has already implemented multi-year research strategies, North American entities can learn from both successes and setbacks among the THyGA partners and its technical consultants. We will be following up next week on AGA’s potential engagement as a sixteenth Advisory Panel member.