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The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy began to build a relationship with the utility industry in September 2004. This relationship, which started with a hydrogen workshop for utilities, has grown into a working group consisting of utilities from across the United States and Canada, DOE, NREL, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the National Hydrogen Association. This group—the Hydrogen Utility Group (HUG)—has grown from a few utilities interested in learning more about hydrogen to a dedicated group committed to exploring the unique perspective utilities bring to the hydrogen-electric future.
NREL is a supporting organization for HUG. Supporting organizations provide direction and support to the utility members of the group.
HUG Mission
Accelerate utility integration of promising hydrogen energy-related business applications through the coordinated efforts and actions of its members in collaboration with key stakeholders, including government agencies and utility support organizations.
HUG Objectives
- Provide a forum where utilities share their hydrogen experiences and lessons learned
- Provide a forum where utilities can build business cases for hydrogen production, distribution, storage, and/or end use
- Focus on short- and long-term
- Identify challenges (regulatory, technical, and strategic)
- Provide a launching pad for utilities to collaborate on projects
- Identify R&D needs, opportunities, and priorities; provide input to various existing and future roadmaps and R&D programs
- Interface with other hydrogen-electric stakeholders.
HUG Drivers
- The future hydrogen-electric economy provides a potential vast new market for utilities across the United States.
- Individual utilities may be looking at ways to integrate hydrogen into their business portfolio and infrastructure.
- Hydrogen integration efforts will likely be aided by the sharing of data and lessons learned between utilities.
- Questions exist that are common to all utilities with regards to hydrogen, which may be best considered by a group, rather than individual utilities.
HUG Membership
- Membership is open to electric and combined electric/gas utilities and others, as approved by the HUG steering committee. Member organizations include DTE Energy, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, Nebraska Public Power District, Connexus Energy, BC Hydro, KEPRI Nuclear Power Laboratory, Arizona Public Service Company, Entergy, Xcel Energy, Southern California Edison, Fort Collins Utilities, New York Power Authority, Southern Company, and Sempra Energy.
- Membership application (coming soon)
HUG Supporting Organizations
Related Publications
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