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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number	NIA_CAD0083
Title	End User Behaviour – Impact on Safety
Status	Completed
Energy Categories	Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Hydrogen) 50%; Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Environmental, social and economic impacts) 50%;
Research Types	Applied Research and Development 100%
Science and Technology Fields	ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation	Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Technology acceptance) 100%
Principal Investigator	Project Contact No email address given Cadent Central
Award Type	Network Innovation Allowance
Funding Source	Ofgem
Start Date	01 August 2022
End Date	30 June 2023
Duration	ENA months
Total Grant Value	£179,244
Industrial Sectors	Energy
Region	West Midlands
Programme	Network Innovation Allowance
Investigators	Principal Investigator	Project Contact , Cadent Central (99.996%)
	Other Investigator	Project Contact , Cadent Eastern (0.001%) Project Contact , Cadent North London (0.001%) Project Contact , Cadent North West (0.001%) Project Contact , Cadent West Midlands (0.001%)
	Industrial Collaborator	Project Contact , Wales and West Utilities (0.000%) Project Contact , Northern Gas Networks (0.000%) Project Contact , Cadent Gas (0.000%) Project Contact , SGN (0.000%)
Web Site	https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/NIA_CAD0083
Objectives	A combined method approach will be used to gain insight into consumers understanding of and attitudes towards 100% hydrogen in the home. The work will take place on the two nominated Village Trial locations in order to obtain a wider range of data. An advisory stakeholder group will be formed consisting of technical subject matter experts as appropriate to ensure the potential of each phase of the Project is maximised. This will involve discussing each phase before it begins and then reviewing the findings. The advisory group will also enable Cadent and NGN village communication teams to draw on the Project when developing their communication with the village trial residents.An initial understanding of domestic consumers attitudes towards and possibly behaviours associated with deployment of new gas technology in the home will be important. There is a need to ensure that this Project delivers new insight on consumer attitudes to hydrogen that has not been delivered by the pre-existing range of studies that have been carried out in the UK and abroad.Building on the understanding of previous work, a series of focus groups and/or interviews will be carried out with residents from the two nominated Village Trial locations. The advisory stakeholder group will develop a sampling strategy to determine who is invited. A semi-structured question set will also be developed in consultation with the advisory group – this will give structure to the discussions to ensure topics of interest to the Project are covered, whilst also allowing participants to raise relevant topics that are important to them. In this way, the focus groups will allow researchers to explore participants views on given topics in detail.Where consumer uptake is not sufficient to form multiple focus groups, one-to-one interviews will be used to supplement the data. With the focus group and interview data analysed, key themes will be used to develop a survey to be sent to all households in the two nominated Village Trial locations (either paper survey or e-survey). The survey will be released in line with Cadent and NGN village communication teams survey schedule to avoid survey fatigue/overloading of trial residents.The survey and focus groups/interviews form a critical part of this Project and all data analysis will be included in a final report. In addition to the report, key findings from the Project will be incorporated into DNVs Village Trial Quantitative Risk Assessment (QRA). This will ensure a more powerful output from the Project, working to focus on improving safety performance of the first of a kind hydrogen trial at approximately 2000 homes scale.Project delivery will be supported by hiring professional organisations to support Cadent on the project. Much of the work will involve consumer engagement across the two potential trial premises, so it is important that any organisation involved has experience in executing human factors/behavioural research programmes across any range of industries – not necessarily gas industry specific. As mentioned in Section 2.2 above, a combined method approach will be adopted, dictated by the outcome of engagements with consumers, rather than a strict work package breakdown more suited to purely technical work. The advisory stakeholder group will play a key part in the successful delivery of the project, meeting on a regular basis to plan the upcoming stages of work and analysing the outputs from any work that has been completed. The advisory group will be formed with a series of technical subject matter experts, as well as experts in the communications and behavioural fields.Literature ReviewThe first stage of the project will be to undertake a review of the literature on domestic consumers attitudes towards and possibly behaviours associated with deployment of new gas technology in the home. Search terms will be developed in consultation with the advisory group members – grey and peer-reviewed literature will be considered and a set of criteria for selecting papers will be developed. Papers about other UK hydrogen projects known by the study team will also be considered as part of the review including Hy4Heat, H21, H100, HyDeploy etc and the IGEM Hydrogen Knowledge Centre.Focus Groups and/or InterviewsThe project will then move on to the hosting of focus groups in each village location. The advisory group will develop a sampling strategy to determine who is invited, however, recruitment of participants for focus groups (and interviews) will be undertaken by Cadent and NGN. Focus groups are likely to be face-to-face and usually consist of 10-12 participants, if there is a need for virtual focus groups to be held, these can be done with slightly less participants. The focus groups will generally last an hour and will be used to explore participants views on given topics. A semi-structured question set is used as this gives structure to discussions to ensure topics of interest to the researchers are covered, yet also allowing participants to raise relevant topics that are important to them. The question set will be in developed in consultation with the advisory group and it is anticipated questions could cover factors such as:- Appliance/equipment design- Risk perception- Awareness/affordability etc.The discussions at each focus group will be captured by a note-taker, with potential for audio/video recordings with the consent of the participants. It is anticipated that the focus groups will be held in a community space such as a community hall or a school, virtual focus groups will most likely be held on MS Teams.It may not be possible to organise five separate focus groups, so one-to-one interviews may be used to supplement the data. The same semi-structured question set will be used and a note-taker will again attend to capture the discussion. It is anticipated that most interviews will be conducted by MS Teams or telephone where this is not possible, but the researchers will also agree to face-to-face interviews if this can be arranged and is better for the interviewee. Face-to-face interviews will only be conducted in a community space for ethical reasons.The focus group and interview data will be analysed to identify key themes which will then be summarised in the final report and used to develop the survey.SurveyThe survey items will be developed based on the findings of the focus groups and interviews and in consultation with the advisory group. Both an e-survey and paper survey will be made available. It is anticipated that the survey will be sent to all households participating in the village trial (in both potential locations). A drop off point for the paper surveys will be set up in the community or they can be returned by post. Both electronic and paper surveys will be completed anonymously. It is anticipated that the survey will largely consist of fixed response questions, either yes/no or a short rating scale. Some open response questions may also be included to allow greater commentary and depth of information. Basic statistical analysis will be undertaken with the data and will be included in the final report. Quantitative Risk AssessmentIt is expected that the quantitative risk assessment (QRA) team at DNV will be represented on the project advisory group; this will enable them to influence each phase of the study to maximise its potential for incorporation into the QRA. The above scope lends itself to the following five key deliverables:1. Excel spreadsheet summarising the literature review.2. A semi-structured question set for the focus groups and interviews.3. A survey (electronic and paper) for distribution to the village trial consumers.4. A report providing a top-level summary of the key messages, methodology, literature review, focus groups and interviews, survey analysis, discussion (including any limitations of the approach), and recommendations which may include further work.5. Human factors input into the Hydrogen Village QRA as appropriate. The objectives of the project are as follows:- Establish a baseline of the level of understanding amongst householders of the potential safety measures associated with using 100% hydrogen in the home- Establish a baseline of the attitudes of householders to these potential safety measures, both positive and negative.- Explore potential behaviours, both safe and unsafe, with respect to potential 100% hydrogen safety measures through self-report.- Explore how negative attitudes and reported unsafe behaviours may be mitigated.- Use the findings to help shape industry communication with householders.- Use the findings to encourage 80-90% uptake of the trial within the village in order to provide sounder evidence on which to base decisions.Explore whether the findings can be used as part of a quantitative risk assessment.
Abstract	The purpose of the project is to better understand public attitudes towards new technology and in particular the safe first use of hydrogen in the home, with recommendations of any appropriate measures to mitigate behavioural risks and negative responses where identified. A combined method approach will be used to gain insight into consumers understanding of and attitudes towards 100% hydrogen in the home. This will include an initial literature review to inform a series of focus groups/interviews and a final survey. The work will take place on the two nominated Village Trial locations in order to obtain a wider range of data.
Publications	(none)
Final Report	(none)
Added to Database	14/10/22