9th December 2020
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) will conduct an
independent review into the safety management of a pioneering
project, announced last week, that aims to understand how existing
gas transmission assets could be used to transport hydrogen in the
future.
The HyNTS FutureGrid experimental site - photo courtesy of
DNV GL, Spadeadam
The
HyNTS FutureGrid Programme seeks to build a hydrogen test
facility from decommissioned assets to demonstrate that the
National Transmission System (NTS), Britain's gas transmission
network, can transport hydrogen to heat homes and deliver green
energy to industry.
HSE, through its Safe Net Zero Research & Consultancy
services, will support the project by independently reviewing the
safety aspects of the programme.
HSE will review and comment on the key milestone activities
being carried out by the project partners in relation to the test
facility design, the master test plan, and the Quantitative Risk
Assessment (QRA).
HSE's independence will ensure that the project will also
address any key gaps in understanding that were generated from an
initial project that explored the feasibility of a hydrogen ready
NTS.
Stuart
Hawksworth, who leads HSE's Centre for Energy explains: 'With
the Government recently announcing its ten-point plan, the race to
achieve net zero is gathering pace. Projects, such as the HyNTS
FutureGrid Programme, all help the UK take a huge step forward
towards introducing hydrogen as an important energy vector to help
achieve our net zero targets. However, for this technology to
be deployed successfully, safety remains a critical factor. HSE's
unique combination of regulatory insight, scientific expertise and
experience, gathered from our involvement in important hydrogen
innovation projects, both in the UK and globally, will help the
HyNTS FutureGrid Programme to operate safely'.
The test facility will replicate a representative natural gas
transmission network and test blends of up to 100% hydrogen at
transmission pressures to assess how the assets perform.
It will remain separate from the main NTS, allowing for testing
to be undertaken in a controlled environment, with no risk to the
safety and reliability of the existing gas transmission
network.
Ofgem's Network Innovation Competition will provide £9.07m of
funding with the remaining amount coming from the project partners.
The aim is to start construction in 2021 with testing beginning in
2022.
Further details about the HyNTS FutureGrid Programme can be
found on the
project website.