Eastern Pennsylvania natural gas consumers enrolling in RNG offer
By Katie Fletcher, Biomass Magazine.
At the beginning of 2016, The Energy Co-op, an independently-owned, local, nonprofit energy supplier, launched a renewable natural gas (RNG) product to residential consumers in the Philadelphia Electric Co. natural gas territory to offset their pipeline gas consumption.
When customers enroll in RNG they continue to use pipeline natural gas, however, The Energy Co-op purchases renewable natural gas credits (RNGCs) generated from the Lanchester Landfill in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The patent-pending RNGCs the cooperative developed enable a monetary value to be added to the environmental benefits of using landfill gas, incentivizing landfill operators to distribute RNG to local businesses as a sustainable alternative to fracked gas, according to The Energy Co-op. The gas produced at the landfill is refined and piped to nearby businesses and has the potential to serve up to 10,000 households annually.