Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | AUGUST 2021 | 25 Policy & Regulation in association with Quoted in the report: "If you decide that hydrogen is a viable vector, how are you going to treat the existing gas assets, how they're valued and what their replacement will be? Those are huge decisions, and not ones the market can take. But somebody's got to take those decisions, and I can see this new body getting involved in strategy discussions." Craig Lucas, director of energy transformation, Mott MacDonald time periods, is more challenging. But if you imagine making hydrogen in an electrolyser, then turning it into more electricity in a gas turbine – the round trip e ciency of that is fairly low and the cost is high, although both those will improve as we scale to some degree. It's a challenge that needs thinking through in a systemic way." Three into one? Certainly, combining the operation of a natu- ral gas system, hydrogen grid and electricity system in one organisation will require sta• with the expertise and mindsets to manage all three and who can operate across these dividing lines. However, he is con dent that the sector can deliver the right mix of skills. "At the time of privatisation, we didn't have the people who knew how to succeed in making a privatised electricity system work, but we learned how to do it," he says. "I think this is similar. We will need new tech- nical competencies, business model com- petencies, regulatory competencies, policy safeguarding system cyber-security and more. • How stakeholders imagine a future ISO could manage cross-vector alignment of low carbon power and a hydrogen-based gas network and • How it could revitalise system codes and standards, making them t for a future of diverse and dynamic system participation. While the views represented in the report on the above issues and others are diverse, what emerges overall is a clear belief that Ofgem's decision to pursue total separation of system operation duties from National energy vectors Grid has opened the door for consideration of substantial energy system reforms. As Simon Harrison, Mott MacDonald's head of group strategy and chair of govern- ment's panel on Electricity Engineering Standards, says: "You don't simply take the current ESO [electricity system operator] and put it into di• erent hands and ask it to keep doing what it's doing. There's an opportunity to give it the right powers, the right remit, the right people to be the change agent the system needs if we're going to deliver a good net zero, irrespective of who owns it." Patrick Erwin, formerly a director at Northern Powergrid – who is among the sen- ior, in• uential individuals whose views are featured in the report – agrees: "We're try- ing to drive, at high speed, an energy revo- lution that's going to involve organisational and behavioural change across the economy. Do we think that a little bit of institutional reform at the system operator is going to deliver that? Of course, it's not." In this article we o• er readers a snapshot of contributor thoughts on the cross-vector responsibilities that a future ISO should arguably adopt, as well as a range of other beliefs expressed about its potential form and functions. For full insights download the PDF free of www. utilityweek.co.uk. Jane Gray, content director competencies, the whole gamut needs new skills and digital skills as well. We'll need to be purposeful about developing them." But in some quarters support for the idea of an integrated system operator is quali ed. Pete Capener, managing director Bath and West Community Energy and deputy chair of Community Energy England, is generally supportive of the concept but points out that electricity and gas are mature, predictable technologies while hydrogen is fundamen- tally "immature". In these circumstances, the law of "implicit bias" suggests that hydrogen could struggle in the inevitable competition for attention and resources. He o• ers an analogy with a di• erent set of competing platforms: the Microso˜ Windows and Apple Mac operating systems. While "cross-vector" interoperability exists in theory, he notes that Windows updates for Mac products can be slow to emerge. Meanwhile, both Microso˜ and Apple continually add to the functionality of the Windows and Mac products they control end to end. Under this analogy, the best way to develop both systems could be to grow them independently. body getting involved in strategy discussions." Craig Lucas, director of energy transformation, Mott MacDonald "Sorting out the relationship between regional distribution and system operation and national system operation will be critical. We could get ourselves in a terrible mess, if we have one set of rules on certain markets locally, one set for other markets nationally, and zero transparency between the actions taken locally and nationally." Je rey Hardy, senior research fellow, Imperial College London Je rey Hardy, senior research fellow, Imperial College London

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