Natural Gas Innovation Act
The Natural Gas Innovation Act is a Minnesota law that passed in June 2021 with bipartisan support. Originally proposed by CenterPoint Energy, this landmark law establishes a regulatory framework to enable the state’s investor-owned natural gas utilities to provide customers with access to renewable energy resources and innovative technologies — reducing greenhouse gas emissions and advancing the state’s clean energy future.
Specifically, the Natural Gas Innovation Act allows a natural gas utility to submit an “innovation plan” for approval by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. An innovation plan could propose the use of renewable energy resources and innovative technologies such as:
- Renewable natural gas (produces energy from organic materials such as wastewater, agricultural manure, food waste, agricultural or forest waste)
- Renewable hydrogen gas (produces energy from water through electrolysis with renewable electricity such as solar)
- Energy efficiency measures (avoids energy consumption in excess of the utility’s existing conservation programs)
- Innovative technologies (reduces or avoids greenhouse gas emissions using technologies such as carbon capture)
The Natural Gas Innovation Act outlines a series of requirements and criteria for natural gas utility innovation plans. In addition, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission adopted frameworks for assessing the greenhouse gas emissions intensities of innovative resources and the costs and benefits of innovation plans.
CenterPoint Energy’s Innovation Plan
CenterPoint Energy expects to submit its first innovation plan to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for approval in the first half of 2023. In preparation for this filing, CenterPoint Energy will convene interested parties to inform the development of its innovation plan.
If you are interested in learning more or engaging in the development of CenterPoint Energy’s innovation plan, please complete this brief interest form: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LM56SF7
For questions or comments about CenterPoint Energy’s innovation plan, please contact InnovationPlan@CenterPointEnergy.com
