SoCalGas Approved for Green Hydrogen Pipeline System

Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) is approved to track costs for advancing the first phase of Angeles Link, a proposed green hydrogen pipeline system that could deliver clean, reliable, renewable energy to the Los Angeles region.

Angeles Link is a hydrogen pipeline system that could support significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation, industrial processes, heavy-duty trucks, and other hard-to-electrify sectors of the Southern California economy.

In a final decision, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) declared, "the public interest is served if SoCalGas begins conducting a feasibility study of the Project immediately." The agency also asked SoCalGas to join members of the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES) in support of California's application for a share of $8 billion in available federal funds to support regional hydrogen hubs.

"California has some of the boldest climate and clean air goals in the nation. The proposed Angeles Link aligns SoCalGas' scale, 150 years of expertise in service, and our highly skilled workforce with the clean energy and environmental policies that will shape this century," said SoCalGas Chief Executive Officer, Scott Drury.

"As the CPUC's decision highlights, Angeles Link has the potential to support decarbonization for hard-to-electrify sectors of our economy, improve our air quality, bring new economic opportunities as well as sustain and grow skilled jobs to our region." 

Serving the Trucking Industry

Proposed in February of this year, Angeles Link would serve hard-to-electrify industries like dispatchable electric generation, heavy-duty trucking, and industrial processes. As contemplated, Angeles Link would deliver green hydrogen in an amount equivalent to almost 25% of the natural gas SoCalGas delivers today. In serving those industries, Angeles Link's green hydrogen could:

• Displace up to 3 million gallons of diesel fuel per day, or 1 billion gallons annually, and enable conversion of up to four natural gas power plants to run on clean renewable hydrogen.
• Eliminate nitrogen oxide (NO_x) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) equal to removing 3.1 million cars off the road annually.
• Generate billions of dollars in new clean energy investments in the LA Basin and create thousands of new union jobs.

Over time and combined with other future clean energy projects, Angeles Link could also help reduce natural gas demand served by the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility, facilitating its ultimate retirement, while continuing reliable and affordable energy service to the region.

Reaching the Nation's Climate Goals

There is growing recognition among experts and policymakers that a broad set of tools will be needed to achieve California's climate and clean air goals by mid-century, including electrification, clean fuels like renewable natural gas and clean renewable hydrogen, and carbon management.

The California Air Resources Board's (CARB's) recent Scoping Plan calls for scaling up, "new options such as renewable hydrogen for hard-to-electrify end uses" in its roadmap to decarbonize California. The federal government has also signaled that clean renewable hydrogen will play a key role in a clean-energy future, with billions of dollars in funding becoming available to develop clean renewable hydrogen hubs.

The Angeles Link project could extend California's position as a leader on clean energy well into the future, while potentially helping to attract billions of dollars in new investment and maintaining and creating thousands of skilled jobs.

"Green hydrogen is an important pathway to reach our goal of zero-emissions cargo operations at the Port," said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka. "The Port and our terminal partners have five active hydrogen demonstration projects and, ultimately, Angeles Link can play a key role in providing green hydrogen at the scale needed to achieve our zero-emissions and decarbonization goals by 2030."

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

SoCalGas announced its aim to have net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. As part of SoCalGas' net-zero strategy, the company is developing an industry-leading portfolio of clean fuels demonstration projects with collaborators from private industry, the US Department of Energy and California Energy Commission, and leading research institutions. More than a dozen hydrogen pilot projects are already underway across the company.

In September, SoCalGas announced a proposed collaboration with the University of California, Irvine, to demonstrate how electrolytic hydrogen can be safely blended into existing natural gas infrastructure on the university's campus.

SoCalGas also announced it's constructing a clean renewable hydrogen microgrid as part of its [H2] Innovation Experience. The [H2] Innovation Experience is a proof-of-concept project for resilient, clean energy using an electrolyzer to convert solar energy to clean renewable hydrogen and a fuel cell to supply electricity to a home, neighborhood, or campus community – independent of the electric grid.