UK gas networks make £900mn funding bid for zero carbon energy infrastructure

The UK’s five gas networks – Cadent, National Grid, NGN, SGN, and Wales & West Utilities – have launched a Zero Carbon Commitment package, calling for £904mn in investment for zero carbon energy infrastructure and hydrogen deployment across the UK. It is hoped this will help spur the UK’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 crisis while helping the UK reach its net zero target.

It follows the April launch of the Energy Networks Association’s Gas Goes Green programme to create the world’s first net zero gas network.

The Zero Carbon Commitment package includes plans to invest:

• £446mn in new network infrastructure for projects that roll out the industrial use of hydrogen, as well as domestic trials. This includes £391mn of investment in engineering and design work for carbon, capture, utilisation and storage projects in the north-west of England, Aberdeenshire and the Isle of Grain.
• £264mn in ‘cross-cutting’ projects that will expand the capacity of local gas networks to connect more hydrogen and biomethane generation projects, transport refuelling stations, and ensure network operators have the right systems in place to manage the gas used by those connections.
• £150mn for running new, large scale trials of domestic appliances providing hydrogen heating, cooking and transportation appliances connected to the gas grid, starting in controlled environments, before moving on to unoccupied and finally occupied premises.
• £44mn in projects to understand how to blend an increasing amount of zero carbon hydrogen with the natural gas currently used in our gas networks, to gradually replace it.

The eventual conversion of the UK’s gas networks to green sources will be critical to the country’s climate change efforts, as gas provides four fifths of total energy demand at peak times.

The Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers (IGEM) has welcomed the plans. CEO Neil Atkinson says: ‘Decarbonising heat remains one of the greatest challenges facing the UK as the nation attempts to transition to net zero emissions by 2050. Gas remains the predominant source of heating for more than 23 million customers across the UK and delivers 720TWh of energy annually. While technologies like electric heat pumps and biomass boilers possess great potential to contribute, the only realistic way to achieve our climate change goals is to convert our existing gas infrastructure to transport low and zero carbon gases. To do this will require a radical shift in energy policy and investment not just in green technologies, but in the future success of our country.’