Hydrogen blending - Optimisation of the commercial regime

Completed

Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Refining, transport and storage of oil and gas)
Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Hydrogen, Hydrogen transport and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
Cadent Gas

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 February 2020

01 October 2020

ENA months

£419,730

Energy

London

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, Cadent Gas

The project will seek to explore the current commercial regime and how it will need to be adapted to allow hydrogen blending.The process to explore this will be via the following stagesStage 1 - Identification of issues and challenges – this will be split into four tasksTask 1.1 Identify high level hydrogen blend and production scenarios. – understand the scenario to be considered during the project.Task 1.2 Initial identification of issues and challenges - first pass identification of the issues and challengesTask 1.3 Principles and criteria for successful solutions – these will be used to assess the different options Task 1.4. Stakeholder engagement – test of the information gathered to date Stage 2: Development of solutions – this will be split into four tasksTask 2.1 Solution longlist - develop a solution longlist for each of the six elements of the value chain.Task 2.2 Consideration of interactions and development of solution packages Task 2.3 Assessment against criteria – to rank options Task 2.4 Engagement with stakeholders – test outcomes with StakeholdersStage 3: Development of road map Task 3.1 Development of road map - develop a clear roadmap that sets out key actions that would need to be undertaken to implement the proposed solution. Task 3.2 Test with stakeholders – final run through with stakeholdersFinishing with the overall project report As part of its funding bid for HyDeploy 2, Cadent estimated that the adoption of blended hydrogen and natural gas could save an estimated 120Mt CO2 by 2050 across GB. It could also lead to a saving for consumers of £8 billion cumulatively to 2050, when compared to the installation and network reinforcement required to move forward with heat pump solutions. The commercial and regulatory actions identified in this project will be necessary to unlock these savings. The objective of this project is to understand the changes required to the current commercial market to deploy hydrogen blending across Transmission and Distribution networks. With consideration of• Injection from 100% Hydrogen networks like HyNet.• Blended injections from other networks e.g. NTS.• Interaction between distribution grid and the NTS, in terms of controlling offtake flows and the potential for hydrogen blends coming off/on to the NTS, including the need to potentially instruct hydrogen producers on another network.

The project will seek to explore the current commercial regime and how it will need to be adapted to allow hydrogen blending.

02/11/22