Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | 6TH - 12TH SEPTEMBER 2019 | 17 Finance & Investment Northumbrian Water has invested £8 million across its network to alleviate flooding dangers in North Tyneside and Durham. In North Tyneside, the group has completed a three-year flood reduction scheme, which saw a joint investment of £6 million from Northumbrian as part of a partnership with the Envi- ronment Agency and North Tyneside Council. WATER Northumbrian commits £8 million to protect against flooding The work was completed in an area where 3,500 homes were at risk from flooding. It included diverting a river away from the sewer network and towards a main river via new piping, construction of three natural surface water storage areas and re-contouring a lake to manage surface water. To improve water quality, floating islands planted with shrubs to absorb nutrients and clean the water were added. Leila Huntington, the Envi- ronment Agency's flood risk manager for the North East, said: "Across North Tyneside there is approximately £6.5 million of Flood Defence Grant in Aid being invested between 2015 and 2021, which will help to better protect homes from flooding." Steena Nasapen-Watson, sustainable sewerage manager Council-owned energy company folds Portsmouth Council to wind down Victory Energy after two offers for the company fall through Portsmouth Council is pressing ahead with the closure of Victory Energy a—er failing to find a buyer for its supply company. The south coast local author- ity announced last week that it is closing down the venture a—er two offers for the company fell through. One was not accept- able to the council because it le— the authority exposed to "substantial further" financial risk. The other was abandoned recently when the buyer withdrew to pursue an alternative investment. Portsmouth has given notice to the directors of Vic- tory that its ongoing financial support for the operations of the business is ceasing and that it will now work with them to support a managed wind-down of the company. The company's nine staff, who will be offered help to find alternative employment, have been issued redundancy notices. Victory was set up by Portsmouth's previous Con- servative controlled administration in 2017 with the twin aims of providing low-cost renewable electricity to resi- dents and generating revenue for the council's coffers. But that decision was reversed following a Liberal Democrat takeover of the authority a—er last year's local council elections. The new administration mothballed the venture before it was up and running on the grounds that it was too risky. Portsmouth Council's Liberal Demo- crat leader Gerald Vernon-Jackson told Utility Week last year he was concerned about the level of customers the company would need to sign up in order to break even. The council decided to dispose of the venture despite receiving a report from consultants PwC in November that showed it could generate a return of £63 million over ten years of operation. DB GAS Government awards £7m to explore low- carbon hydrogen The government has awarded 20 projects a share of £7 million to explore innovative ways of making and using low-carbon hydrogen. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) granted £4.9 million to 13 applicants for its Hydrogen Sup- ply competition and £2 million to seven applicants for its Indus- trial Fuel Switching competition to undertake feasibility studies. The findings will help deter- mine which of the participants receive further funding to pro- gress their proposals. Over thier durations, the competitions will each dole out up to £20 million. Climate change minister Lord Duncan said: "Develop- ing hydrogen technology has the potential to not only reduce emissions from industry but could also help us seize the opportunities of the global shi— to cleaner economies – with the prize of up to two million jobs and £170 billion of annual exports by 2030." One of the winners of the Hydrogen Supply competition is the Gigastack project led by ITM Power. The company is aiming to reduce the cost of electrolysis by developing a new polymer electrolyte membrane electro- lyser that can be manufactured in 5MW modules and stacked together to form larger installa- tions at least 100MW in size. The company envisages the modules being produced in a new semi-automated factory that could churn out up to 1GW of electrolysers each year. In comparison, the largest existing factories around the world have an annual output of less than 30MW. The company has two part- ners on the project – Orsted and Element Energy. Orsted will seek to establish the circumstances in which it is economically viable to produce low-carbon hydrogen using offshore wind farms and electrolysers. Element Energy will identify potential end users, explore business models for the operation of large electrolysers and develop a rollout strategy for the first 100MW units. Anders Christian Nordstrom, vice president for hydrogen at Orsted, said: "Combining renewable power with flexible green hydrogen production is a key part of decarbonising energy systems across Europe and ultimately creating a world that runs entirely on green energy. "Hydrogen production by electrolysis is a technology with great potential." Other winners of the Hydrogen Supply competition include the Dolpyhn project from Environmental Resources Management, which would see electrolysers co-located with floating wind farms, and EDF Energy's Hydrogen-to-Heysham project, which would see them installed at its Heysham 1 and 2 nuclear power stations. Vernon-Jackson: customer number concerns for Northumbrian Water, said: "We've already seen the benefits of this project, where the new storage basins were utilised dur- ing the recent heavy rainfall and helped to reduce the impact of surface water flooding locally." As part of a separate project, Northumbrian has committed £2 million to upgrade its sewer network to reduce flooding risk around Durham city. This week

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