Enhancing Alberta’s Natural Gas System

Issue

Serious challenges persist within Alberta's natural gas system which negatively impacts natural gas supply chain reliability, industry operations, and investor confidence. These challenges can and should be addressed to better manage the current system demand and industry operations and to further position Alberta as an industrial investment location of choice. With an abundance of natural resources, developing world-class infrastructure would provide investor confidence in the competitive advantage Alberta has for attracting new investment. 

Given the essential role hydrogen has in achieving net-zero goals it will be essential to improve the natural gas system reliability to ensure enhanced reliability of the production of this vital clean fuel of the future and enable the hydrogen economy to develop in a safe, reliable, and sustainable manner. 

Background

Natural gas is supplied by federally regulated monopolies, similar to rail transportation. Currently, there are no quality specifications for natural gas at the delivery point for consumers in Alberta and this can adversely impact downstream users. Quality excursions have been experienced in Alberta and such events can have significant downstream impacts on industrial facilities and subsequently on consumer markets. Low-quality natural gas can cause production delays, damage to facilities, and quality impacts on derivative products of natural gas. 

Our Recommendations

1. Set quality standards for natural gas specifically at the delivery point and create provisions for losses related to the delivery of off-spec natural gas; 
2. Ensure timely development of new, and expansion of existing, natural gas supply infrastructure to support growing natural gas demand, attract new projects, and secure further investment in Alberta; 
3. Streamline regulation and approval process for critical infrastructure builds, such as pipelines, and; 
4. Advance recommendations for hydrogen blending in existing natural gas systems only after multi-year pilot studies have been completed to ensure that the blending levels proposed can be managed safely, without adverse reliability impacts, and at a reasonable cost to consumers.