Town Pilot - Hydrogen production

Since 2019 the Government have shown an increasing commitment to exploring the use of hydrogen as a solution for decarbonizing transport, industry and heat.

On 27th October 2022 the GB Gas Distribution Networks (GDNs) were issued a letter by Ofgem and BEIS (The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy) inviting them to put forward high level proposals for Town Pilot locations. These proposals must have the ability to provide and convert to hydrogen up to 20,000 properties comprising a mix of domestic, industrial and commercial by the end of 2030. Additionally, BEIS have requested that each location demonstrate the ability to undertake a phased scale up to convert up to 200,000 properties comprising a mix of domestic, industrial and commercial by 2037.

Submission for Town Pilot locations must be returned to BEIS no later than 20th January 2023. NGN are intending to submit 3 Town Pilot locations to BEIS which NGN believe meet the criteria that BEIS have set in terms of scalability and range of users converted.

The locations proposed are based within the regions of Humberside, Teesside & West Yorkshire

Modelling for each of the locations has been completed providing the expected hydrogen demand for end users within the initial Town Pilot location and at the end of the subsequent wider roll out. The hydrogen demand for each location is detailed below:

Tonnes per year Humberside 44,006, Teesside 58,850, West Yorkshire 51,898

NGN are currently developing submissions for each location and are releasing this expression of interest to identify potential hydrogen production partners within the chosen regions.

Hydrogen production facilities would need to be situated within the regions and have the capability of providing all or a percentage of the Town Pilot and eventual scale up demands as detailed above. Additionally, production facilities would need to be producing hydrogen by early 2030.