Utility Week

38 | DECEMBER 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Event Hydrogen must make its case The government has signalled that it will decide the future of hydrogen in the mid- 2020s. At Utility Week's Hydrogen Forum, experts deliberated about what the sector can do to establish its viability. A lthough electrification and heat pumps have dominated discussions around the future of heat following the government's 10 Point Plan and Heat and Buildings Strategy, it was the future of gas that took centre stage when experts from across the sector gathered at Utility Week's Hydrogen Forum in November to hear how the industry is working to prepare for 2026. This is the date by which the government has promised to make policy decisions about the future of heat in the UK, and hydrogen is expected to play a central role in both meeting the heat requirements of industrial and domestic customers, and in powering the transport sector. How much hydrogen the UK can be expected to produce, and what the likely size of the demand will be are two key questions the industry must wait until 2026 to find out. Until then, the sector is working collabo- ratively to put together the safety case that will underpin the government's decision, and on how to undertake the transition while keeping customers onboard. Here are some of the hot topics that domi- nated discussion at the Hydrogen Forum. Renewed interest in the wake of the recent energy crisis Jacob Young MP, chair of the All-Party Par- liamentary Group (APPG) for hydrogen, said that while initially the group was quite niche, interest in the hydrogen sector among his parliamentary colleagues "has now exploded", with more and more MPs want- ing to attend. Young believes that the APPG's vision that the UK could become a global leader in low carbon hydrogen is shared more widely across parliament, with interest particularly peaked by the recent energy crisis. Commenting on the "chicken and egg" problem of whether supply or demand should come first, Young said the APPG was disappointed at the lack of a mandate for hydrogen-ready boilers in the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy's (BEIS) Heat and Buildings Strategy. "Government has committed to making a decision in 2026. If that decision is to go ahead with 100% hydrogen, and I think it will be, then we can get ahead of the game and it would give the industry the commit- ment it needs for demand." In the absence of such a mandate, Young pointed to the expected growth of hydrogen in transport as being a way to start bring- ing an element of clarity to the unanswered questions around the likely size of both sup- ply and demand. This was echoed by John Colgan, busi- ness development manager, buses, London Transport, who explained that while only 500 of the 9,000 buses in London's bus fleet are electric today, and just 20 hydrogen, its entire bus fleet will have been re-contracted by 2027, offering the opportunity for a hydro- gen baseload in the near future. He confirmed that the transport sector expects the existing gas networks to play a major role in transporting hydrogen, as there is "no doubt" that a hydrogen gas grid is the most efficient and lowest carbon method. Heat pump uptake will not undermine the case for hydrogen With the quantity and location of hydrogen use still very much to be decided, the recent announcements from BEIS of both a target of 600,000 heat pumps installations a year by 2028, and the Clean Heat Grant, which opens in 2022, have the potential to add more uncertainty into the mix. However, David Watson, head of energy transition at Cadent Gas, didn't think so. While he agreed that a significant uptake in heat pumps would change the economics of hydrogen, he said it wouldn't undermine it. He pointed out that, even if the govern- ment's target was met, there would still be twice as many gas boilers being installed. This, coupled with the likely demand from industry and the transport sector, means an increased uptake would not change Cadent's plans for the network.

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