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6 | 3RD - 9TH APRIL 2020 | UTILITY WEEK News Inside story I n an interview with Cadent chief execu- tive Steve Fraser last week we discussed the company's past performance issues and his e orts to resolve them. This week, we move on to hydrogen conversion, the gas mains replacement programme and returns for investors. One problem Fraser identi• ed since join- ing Cadent in September last year is that "people have had too many things in their job, so they've not had simple targets to meet on individual things. They've all been cross- ing over. "A lot of people in this company are good at getting things started, but there's been a lack of doing the last 10 per cent and • nish- ing what we start." Transition to hydrogen Nowhere has this been more evident than in Cadent's work on hydrogen: "We weren't driving things as forcefully as we could be," he acknowledges. Fraser has since brought in some "heavy- weights" and assigned the work to a dedi- cated team. "The rest of the company needs to focus on being the best four gas networks in the sector," he says. This work includes managing the HyDeploy trial at Keele University, where hydrogen is being blended with natural gas in its private network at rates of up to 20 per cent. "The work we've done at Keele has gone down well," says Fraser. "It's been very suc- cessful at showing you can get to 20 per cent reasonably simply." The company is hoping to give the go- ahead to the HyDeploy2 trial, which will see hydrogen injected into an isolated sec- tion of the public gas network, by the end of thisŒyear. According to Fraser, blending o ers a stepping stone to deeper decarbonisation and a way to meet intermediate emissions targets. "Let's not try to swallow the apple in one go," he says. "If you can get a blend of 10 per cent into what we've got now, that's like taking hundreds of thousands of cars o the road. In fact, it's more than that. It's into millions." In May 2018, Cadent released proposals for a large-scale hydrogen network (HyNet) in northwest England and later incorporated this into a wider project to create a zero-car- bon industrial cluster in the region. "The partners are predominantly on board," says Fraser. "I think we now can probably step up a bit more in terms of trying to support those partners through their development and ensure it all comes together."