Is Your Facility Leaving Money on the Table? The Case for Expert O&M

 130 new RNG facilities came online in 2025. Hundreds more are aging. The gap between facilities that perform and those that underperform has never been more consequential, and it almost always comes down to O&M.

The North American RNG industry is in full expansion mode. But that growth creates a new challenge that doesn't get discussed enough; as the new portfolio ages, O&M complexity rises, and the cost of getting it wrong keeps going up.

Across all industries, the average per-hour cost of unplanned equipment downtime has roughly doubled since 2019. In RNG, every hour offline isn't just a maintenance problem, it's gas that isn't being captured, energy that isn't being injected, and RIN credits that aren't being earned. For a facility running on a 20-year off-take agreement, that loss compounds quietly over time until it shows up in project economics that look nothing like the original underwriting. 

The facilities that perform for their full asset life share one thing; a proactive, structured O&M program, backed by certified specialists who understand this industry's unique demands. 

The Three Pillars of High-Performance O&M

What separates a high-performing facility from one that quietly underperforms isn't the equipment spec, it's the O&M model behind it. Biogas and RNG facilities are process plants, not passive infrastructure. Methane content fluctuates. H₂S levels shift with landfill chemistry. Engines and compressors run continuously and need expert attention at regular intervals. The gas collection system needs ongoing rebalancing as landfill production profiles evolve over time. 

An O&M provider that treats these facilities like a standard utility will miss the nuances that cost operators real money. What's needed is a team with biogas-specific expertise, certified engine technicians, GCCS maintenance specialists, and operators who have spent their careers in this industry, not parachuted in from adjacent sectors.

ESI has operated biogas and RNG facilities since 2007. That nearly two decades of field experience informs every O&M program the team deploys, from daily operations to major overhauls, controls, troubleshooting to SCADA integration and environmental compliance. It's the kind of institutional knowledge that only comes from running the same classes of facilities for a long time, in all conditions, across a nationwide portfolio.

What Wholistic O&M Actually Means:

A wholistic O&M program means one provider, one point of accountability, and zero gaps. In practice for biogas and RNG facilities, that covers daily operations, routing and non-routine maintenance, major engine and equipment overhauls, SCADA monitoring and remote diagnostics, environmental compliance tracking, emergency response, and the engineering support needed to adapt the facility as it ages and as market conditions evolve.

This advantage of that integrated model isn't just operational simplicity; it's the feedback loop between field operations and engineering. When the people running the facility day to day are the same people informing design decisions for upgrades, the result is a facility that gets smarter over time, not just older. 

As the RNG portfolio ages and as the market becomes more competitive, that long-term performance edge will increasingly define which projects deliver on their original investment case, and which ones don't.

Is Your O&M Program Working as Hard as Your Facility?

Ready to Raise the Bar on Facility Performance?

ESI has operated biogas and RNG facilities since 2007. Certified technicians, integrated SCADA, full-wrap O&M, built for this industry.