The Super Emitter Program (SEP) was developed by the EPA in response to studies that show that a small number of swiftly emitting sources are responsible for nearly half of the methane emissions in the oil and gas sector. Historically, these large, unpredictable events often went undetected, harming the environment and incurring substantial financial costs to industrial operators.
How satellite technology can help
Under the SEP, the EPA takes aim at mitigating them, first creating a common definition of super emitters as emissions of greater than or equal to 100kg/hr, and then requiring transparency on these events. While previously, these events were unaccounted for in Subpart W reporting, they must now be reported under “other large releases” in the finalized subpart W revisions.
Now, the question is: how can industry ensure compliance with these regulatory changes?
Operators will need to draw on emerging technologies to monitor for hot spots, identifying emissions and then verifying compliance with the regulation.
The EPA recognizes both aerial surveys and satellites as technologies that can be deployed to identify super emitters, once approved. Each play a unique role, with their own advantages, and there are no silver bullets. These technologies work well in tandem with each other. However, the ease of deployment and cost-effective nature of satellite technologies means that they are a vital part of the solution.
High-resolution capabilities such as GHGSat’s constellation are built to both detect events of greater than or equal to 100kg/hr as defined by the EPA—rooting out super-emitters—and pinpoint their sources. What’s more: GHGSat’s robust constellation of satellites can monitor near-daily, scanning regularly for super emitter events, at a fraction of the cost of other technologies. This frequent monitoring is key to detecting super emitter events as quickly as possible.
Why is frequent monitoring for super emitters so critical?
- The economic incentive. Frequent monitoring eliminates costly super emitter events at a facility fast, by rapidly identifying, investigating, and fixing the root causes instead of finding out about them days or even months later. Some industry operators are fearful that regular monitoring will uncover new events, leading to more costly fines. As a result, they instead consider performing fewer inspections. This fear is unfounded. The Waste Emissions Charge (WEC) is only levied on the volume of methane emissions exceeding the industry segment threshold, and not on the volume emitted during every event.
- The ability to mitigate reputational risks associated with insufficient monitoring. It only takes one outlier event to discredit the efforts of an organization. Regular satellite monitoring means that no methane emissions are a surprise—and emerging emissions can be resolved swiftly. GHGSat is committed to working with operators to detect and mitigate emissions of all kinds, including super emitters.
- Data to understand the duration of a super emitter event. The regulation requires that industry time-bound events for quantification—without frequent monitoring, the duration is uncertain. While the final provision of the regulation reduces the assumed start time in the absence of data from 182 to 91 days, the volume of gas emitted during a super emitter event could potentially be substantial, depending on observed leak rates. Monitoring frequency should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, based on facility characteristics, instead of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. Frequent monitoring means that industrial operators can know when a leak starts, within hours. Our team of experts work with operators to design a monitoring campaign based on their needs and operating parameters.
Reach out to GHGSat to discuss your emissions monitoring needs and let our team of experts help you design the most cost-effective approach to achieve your goals. Learn more here.
