Interview: UK's National Grid targets hydrogen network build from 2026

National Grid aims to start linking industrial clusters in the UK's northeast with dedicated hydrogen pipelines before the end of the decade, the transmission company's Project Director for Hydrogen, Antony Green, told S&P Global Commodity Insights in an interview May 11.

Construction of Project Union could start in 2026, with a first phase completed by 2028, he said.

The initial work will link the industrial clusters around Teesside and Humberside via 100 km of pipeline, Green said ahead of an official project launch May 12. The two regions have large-scale hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage projects planned.

"If you want to roll out hydrogen from the clusters, you first of all build or preferably convert the Project Union pipeline, then you hang the local distribution network off of that, and that allows you to decarbonize towns and cities," Green said.

National Grid has completed the strategy phase for Project Union, and is looking to move to a pre-front end engineering design phase.

A feasibility study could take around a year, to be followed by 18 months of FEED projects, he said.

Construction of a first phase could take place from 2026-28, with a second phase to be built in 2027-29, leading to operations at scale this decade.

Dual track strategy

National Grid envisages Project Union as a dual track strategy of building a dedicated hydrogen pipeline network, alongside pipelines where it will blend hydrogen into the existing natural gas infrastructure.

The company plans to connect the main hydrogen production centers of the future, including industrial clusters and other sites, with 2,000 km of pipeline.

Green hydrogen production powered by renewable electricity could be more dispersed at first, as multiple small-scale projects come online in the coming decade.

Noting the burgeoning number of green hydrogen projects announced for deployment across the country, Green said: "I think we'll see green blossom."

"To enable independence from Russian gas, one answer is green hydrogen, because you can produce it wherever you've got electricity and water," he said.

However, that did not spell an end for blue hydrogen projects, which feature prominently in the UK's industrial decarbonization plans.

"I don't think it does away with blue hydrogen at all because we will need the volumes from blue, and we've got the indigenous natural gas and storage in the UK."

Alkaline electrolysis hydrogen production costs in the UK are almost three times higher than those for autothermal reforming plus carbon capture and storage, according to data from S&P Global, based on month-ahead power and gas prices. S&P Global assessed alkaline electrolysis in the UK at GBP9.24/kg ($11.27/kg) May 11.

Dutch example

Green said it would take around five to eight years to work through the transition of gas assets to hydrogen.

He noted in an online event on April 27 that the Netherlands was "a number of years ahead" of the UK in its hydrogen network developments, where Gasunie has been tasked by the government with developing a 1,200 km hydrogen network to start operations by 2027.

The Dutch government is to provide half of the Eur1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) in estimated costs for the project, according to Rabobank.

Decarbonizing power, industry

In October 2021, the UK government brought forward its target to decarbonize the country's power grid by 2035, 15 years ahead of the goal set out in a previous energy white paper. And in its energy security package in April 2022, the government said it would decarbonize 95% of the grid by 2030.

Green said the accelerated ambition from government had brought power systems into the scope of National Grid's hydrogen plans, alongside the decarbonization of industry already in view.

"That means you will need some dispatchable power fired by hydrogen, most likely, for when the wind's not blowing and the sun's not shining," Green said. "Some sort of molecule-based generation is going to be needed; either CCGTs with natural gas and carbon capture on the back end or hydrogen-fired."

Retrofitting pipelines

Most of the hydrogen network will be formed of retrofitted pipelines, which Green said would be quicker, easier and cheaper.

These pipelines are currently in use, so work will need to be done to check the resilience of the system, if they are to be taken out of service in the natural gas network. Green said some older compressors may need to be upgraded.

National Grid aims to dedicate these first pipelines between the East Coast industrial clusters to 100% hydrogen, but blending could be a way to get there more easily, Green said.

The aim is to build a "no-regrets network," Green said, which would have the potential to decarbonize industry, power and heat wherever it is built.

The government is due to take a decision on the role of hydrogen in heating by 2026.

While the UK has promised to finalize a funding support mechanism for hydrogen by the end of 2022, a business model for hydrogen transport and storage is not due to be defined until after 2025.

National Grid is in discussions with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) on funding support for projects in the interim.

While an initial hydrogen pipeline system could be ready well before 2030, Green acknowledge that it was difficult to line up all the components of a hydrogen production and supply network to come online at the same time.

National Grid could build the pipeline in advance of the emergence of first demand, but the company would not want an empty pipeline waiting for too long, he said.

Connecting industrial clusters

Project Union aims to eventually link other industrial clusters and production centers around the country, such as the proposed South Wales hub.

But Green said at present, pipelines from South Wales LNG import terminals were being fully utilized receiving cargoes to send to mainland Europe as the continent scrambles to replace as much Russian supply as quickly as possible.

He said it would be possible to convert one of the two pipelines to hydrogen use, though this would depend on the government's energy security priorities.

Other options for future hydrogen pipeline developments included expanding the network north to Scotland, west to the HyNet cluster near Liverpool or south to tie into hydrogen plans at Bacton, including a pipeline connection to the continent.

Green said some guidance and confidence from government on policy developments would help inform future network plans and link producers with demand centers.

There was a risk to projects "if there were no guarantees that all of this value chain was going to happen," he said.

British gas grid operators said in January they were ready to start blending up to 20% hydrogen in their networks from 2023.

Green said hydrogen's role in a decarbonized energy system was inevitable.

A study for BEIS in 2021 on the impact of the UK's sixth carbon budget found the country could use 250-460 TWh of hydrogen by 2050.

"However you slice or dice it, that is an awful lot of hydrogen," Green said.