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14 | NOVEMBER 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Build Back Better 6-8pm peak when people are finishing work. Hence the need for more consumer pricing incentives. Network tension Capacity of the networks to facilitate charg- ing is another matter. This is providing a source of tension between Ofgem and DNOs. Networks have been making the case to invest in boosting capacity, which will con- tinue in RIIO2 price controls, but Ofgem needs to balance any such spending plans with affordability to consumers. Dr Jeff Hardy, a senior research fellow at the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, says: "Bringing forward the ban would have big implications for the networks if EV charging happens in an uncontrolled way. And so it would have to go hand in hand with the right price signals – that is, people being incentivised to charge up at off- peak times. "It also requires strategic investment in networks and will form a key discussion plank in the RIIO2 discussions, with net- works arguing that if we want to stimulate EV take-up, Ofgem should allow them to invest now. But Ofgem will be nervous about giving them money upfront without strong evidence on EV growth. More likely there will be some upfront funding together with an uncertainty mechanism, like a volume driver," he adds. EDF's Vincent de Rul agrees with the need to take a balanced view: "Regulation should encourage investment – but there needs to be the right investment at the right time, and it's also about encouraging flex- ibility to reduce the investment necessary. There could be local flexibility that is avail- able and we need to draw on that. There is not a global solution." EDF is investing heavily in a number of areas connected with EVs. In November 2019 it acquired battery storage and EV charging infrastructure firm Pivot Power in a bid to bolster its position in both markets. In Febru- ary it boosted capacity in the home charging market with a majority stake in Pod Point, one of the largest EV charging companies in the UK, as part of a newly formed joint ven- ture with Legal & General Capital. Pod Point has more than 70,000 charge-points in the UK and more than 10,000 on commercial premises and is currently in discussion with Tesco and Lidl to install them there. Meanwhile, EDF is offering consumers a one-stop shop to switch to EVs – leasing of vehicles, installation of home charging points and a smart tariff (which de Rul says is the first stage to a time-of-use tariff). The race is on to deliver the biggest revo- lution in transport since the development of the motor car. But as de Rul, himself firmly behind the 2030 deadline, notes: "We have to deliver. We have no choice." Analysis F illing the UK's gas pipe- lines with hydrogen instead of natural gas is a concept that is simultaneously simple to grasp and mind-bogglingly complex. It involves creating a new end-to-end energy system, from production to consumer, with new regulatory controls, commercial incentives and con- tractual mechanisms all support- ing the vast new infrastructure needed to produce hydrogen at scale. The existing networks represent the bit in the middle – and so far there's not much else to see. Instead, there's a patchwork of pilot projects, research tri- als and demonstrators, such as HyNet, HyDeploy and H100. Together, they're exploring the feasibility of swapping hydrogen for the natural gas supplied to 84 per cent of UK homes, look- ing at how hydrogen behaves from the transmission and dis- tribution levels down to domes- tic boilers and cookers, how the public will react, and how – as a non- intermittent energy source – domestic demand or long-term storage can balance out a hydro- gen over-supply in the industrial sector. The research programme operates under the umbrella brand of "Gas Goes Green", facil- itated by the Energy Networks Association to help inform gov- continued from previous page Getting the right blend In the second extract from our Green Recovery report produced with Addleshaw Goddard, we focus on the role of hydrogen in low carbon heat. There's a lot of new pilot projects but what it's crying out for is a clear strategy, explains Elaine Knutt. ernment-level policy decisions. At Cadent, director of strategy Dr Angela Needle says this patch- work is in fact a co-ordinated quilt. "We have all got a bit of the ultimate answer, to whether it is safe and technically feasi- ble. Aer all, we're spending consumers money, and we don't want to duplicate effort." Antony Green, project direc- tor for hydrogen at National Grid, agrees with that assessment. "All the projects are talking to one another and working really col- laboratively, they're patching on to each other's projects and co- funding them together." But because hydrogen scale- up involves a domino sequence of interconnected decisions, there's also a collective sense of a sector waiting for something to happen. Put simply, the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) is wait- ing for confirmed safety data, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is waiting for HSE sign-off, indus- try stakeholders are waiting for clear BEIS policy signals, and investors are waiting until there's a guaranteed consumer and industrial demand. "BEIS will only make those policy decisions once safety is satisfied by the trials. So the tri- als are very relevant to produc- tion happening and demand getting underway," says Green. "Hydrogen scale-up involves a domino sequence of interconnected decisions."