The UK was legally bound to make ambitious carbon reductions under the terms of the Climate Change Act (2008). However, the UK
government signed legislation on 27th June 2019 committing the UK to a legally binding target of Net Zero emissions by 2050. Scottish
Government committed to set targets of Net Zero emissions by 2045. This means the UK must tackle decarbonisation at pace and change
the way energy is produced, transported and consumed to meet this new target.
NGN and the other GDNs have committed to work with stakeholders and the government to work collaboratively towards a strategy to
convert the gas distribution networks to hydrogen through the national Gas Goes Green initiative including projects such as the NGN H21
100% hydrogen project and the SGN H100 project.
In order to convert the network to 100% hydrogen the services must be assessed to ensure they are suitable for the supply of hydrogen,
specifically to provide evidence that the service configurations can meet the required predicted increase in demand due to the lower caloric
value of hydrogen.
Current data from the NGN SAP S4S system, as an indicator, shows that only 10% of the domestic connections are 25mm or greater in
diameter, and 65% of connections are between 0-10m in length.
Services are likely to need upgrading, and so current strategies and procedures may need to be changed as soon as possible, in line with
new connections and mains service replacement works which are currently in progress.
The project will be delivered in four phases:
- Phase 1 – Modelling Assessment of Hydrogen Supply requirements based on required energy demand of typical hydrogen ready
appliances to ascertain the predicted pressure drop for the various pipe diameters and lengths. - Phase 2 – Validation of modelling assessment on H21 test rig.
Stage Gate – At the end of Phase 2 a meeting will be held with all of the collaborative partners to review the findings of Phases 1 and
2 with the purpose of agreeing the best way forward for the actual delivery of Phases 3 and 4. - Phase 3 – Collation of service connection data to gather the data held on the number of domestic customers by various pipe sizes
and connection lengths. - Phase 4 – Generate a report reviewing the customer data against model findings, calculating the volume of domestic customer
connections that require upgrading.
