ESC Residential Consortium Minutes 011421

ESC Residential Consortium Minutes from January 14, 2021 Meeting was called to order at 2:03 pm Eastern Time Attendance: Black Hills Energy Joe Terick CenterPoint Energy Ryan Duggan Chesapeake Utilities Jen Vandervort Eversource Joel Rayberg FortisBC Tanja Percival National Fuel Marti Sawyer National Fuel Ashley Butera NW Natural Samantha Moore SoCal Debbie Eggers Southeast Gas Shannon Jackson Spire Kathleen Crowley February TMAF: Barb reminded everyone that ESC will be holding a 3-day webathon in a similar fashion to the webathon we held in June 2020. The TMAF “webathon” will run from February 23 – 25, 2021. As with the June event, you will be able to attend which ever sessions appeal to you and you will not need to attend for the entire 3-day event. If you do not recall receiving an email with instructions on how to register for this event, continue to watch your email for additional opportunities to register. You can always send Barb an email as well and she can send the registration link to you. No Changes to DHE Standards: The Energy Policy & Conservation Act requires DOE to periodically determine if more stringent standards would be technologically feasible and economically justified and result in significant energy savings. The standards for Direct Heating Equipment were recently examined and the DOE has tentatively concluded that revising these standards would not yield significant energy savings and therefore have no plans to make revisions to the standards. Direct Heating Equipment (DHE) would include wall furnaces, room heaters and floor furnaces. However, the DOE is still accepting comments from any interested party. AGA Starts Study of Emissions from Gas Cooking Equipment: AGA has contracted with NORESCO, an energy services company from Boulder, CO; to study emissions from gas cooking equipment. We have all seen a rash of articles referring to the dangerous side effects resulting from cooking with natural gas. The study will be conducted in two phases. The first phase will examine the NO2 concentrations resulting from cooking with gas while Phase II will examine 5 emission classes (CO, NO2, particulate matter in 2 size ranges, formaldehyde and acrolein). This study represents the first study done by the natural gas industry to gauge the impact of NO2 emissions from household cooking appliances. Residential Appliance Testing for Methane/Hydrogen Blends: Sponsored by AGA, AHRI and CSA Group, testing was recently conducted by Appliance Engineering to develop exploratory tata to determine if there are any operational issues for domestic gas appliances when they utilize methane/hydrogen mixtures of 5% and 15% hydrogen. The testing covered 5 appliance categories with various differences in combustion and heat recovery technology. Potential leakage from appliances and gas piping was examined as well. One initiative coming out of the testing is to develop proposed revisions to Z21 standards test gases to include natural gas/hydrogen blends of up to 15% to be used in design certification for safety. The test results were virtually presented to the ANS A21/Z83 technical committee. Open Discussion: Once agenda items were covered, Barb asked members on the call if they had any items for open discussion. None of the members on the call had any items to be discussed or shared with the group so the call was ended. The meeting was adjourned at 2:28 PM Eastern time.