GFO-24-501 – Paving the Way for California’s Gas Transition

Purpose

The purpose of this solicitation is to fund applied research projects that meet the following initiatives: Location-Specific Analysis of Decommissioning to Support Long-Term Gas Planning (Gas Research and Development (R&D) Budget Plan FY 2021-2022) Scaled-Up Gas Decommissioning Pilots and Integrated Planning Tools (Gas R&D Budget Plan FY 2022-2023)

Description

The State of California aims to greatly decrease reliance on fossil gas (commonly known to consumers as natural gas) over the next few decades, including by electrifying current gas end uses, decommissioning gas system infrastructure, reducing gas-fired power generation, and potentially by integrating lower-carbon gases into the utility gas system or deploying other alternatives to fossil gas. The focus of this solicitation is understanding and supporting both the prerequisites to and impacts of conversion from gas end uses in the residential and commercial sectors, considered in the context of a transition from fossil gas use overall. Over 11 million homes and commercial buildings in California use gas, and electrification of gas end uses in these buildings is technically feasible. In many cases, however, electrification may not be practical or desirable from logistical, affordability, financial, equity, functional, energy system planning, or other perspectives. Additionally, there are hurdles to achieving primarily policy-driven, and ideally coordinated, change in a domain dominated by private, personal choices (Blazquez et al. 2020).