This whole system integration project aims to decarbonise the gas distribution operation and reduce cost, with a benefit to the energy consumers in the way of reduced tariffs. We aim to investigate if the power generated from excess gas can be fed back into the grid or stored, improving the coordination between the gas and electric network, and assessing the cost of potential energy demand reduction activities. To design for scalability and harness value from data across organisations, we will determine the digital systems architecture to improve data collection, quality, interoperability and shareability.We are evaluating the introduction of a new product and service that has been proven in the oil and gas sector but is new to the UK energy market. The main users will be gas distribution and transmission businesses. The project entails evaluation of novel approaches to infrastructure investment by taking a systems’view across generation and demand side, determining new financial viability for infrastructure expansion and modernisation.

Problem Bring Solved

As economic activity increases, the demand for energy, the associated carbon emissions and consumers’ energy bills also rise. The increased energy demand requires more grid connections than are currently available. And the increased carbon emissions and consumers’ bills costs required a rethink of how all sectors of the economy operate and interact amongst each other, especially how excess energy generated by one business could be harnessed to power another to reduce carbon and energy costs. Energy networks are right in the middle of this energy transition. They are seeking ways to not only decarbonise their businesses, but also integrate with adjacent businesses in a whole system fashion.To this end, gas distribution networks (GDNs) in particular, have set very ambitious net-zero goals driven by three themes. First, GDNs have kicked-off major digitalisation programmes that aim to increase the efficiency/effectiveness and reduce the carbon-intensity of GDNs’ operations. This entails an increase in the number of digital systems (telemetry/control/workforce enablement) across their networks at the expense of requiring more grid connections than currently available, along with the new connections’ cost, and an uplift of the network's electricity consumption profile to power the increased number electronic systems required. Second, GDNs aim to take their operations off-grid as much as possible or achieve ‘net-zero’ by tapping into renewables and provide a secondary fallback resilient power source. But renewables are intermittent, and their geo-location doesn’t match the footprint of GDNs networks. Third, GDNs have set the even more ambitious challenge to provide energy back into the grid to address its constraints and/or reduce the cost of energy back to the consumer. So how could GDNs achieve their ambitious goals to power the digitalisation agenda, achieve net-zero, and feed energy back into the grid? The solution is to identify future power requirements from digitalisation, design the corresponding architecture, and explore reliable renewable energy to power this modernisation. Such a solution has been developed by Revolution Turbine Technologies’ (RTT) which produces scalable, affordable, and reliable zero-emission electric power using excess pressure in flowing gases. However, the technology has originally been designed to operate in offshore remote oil and gas production sites and the opportunity is to undertake R&D and adapt RTT’s technologywithin onshore GDNs to tolerate methane-hydrogen blends and operate efficiently and reliably over a wider range of pressures and flow rates vs. the ones found in GDNs