Project Summary

Switching our homes and businesses from carbon-emitting natural gas to hydrogen is one of the ways we can decarbonise our energy system. However, consumers will be affected in different ways by the change-over to hydrogen, with some domestic consumers and small businesses being at greater risk and more vulnerable to the change than others.

Hy-Fair will identify and quantify the needs for more tailored support, and then develop and trial the innovative social and technological solutions required to make the hydrogen transition work for everyone.

The project will pave the way for an inclusive hydrogen transition. In doing so, the delivery of hydrogen infrastructure will work for everyone first-time, avoiding expensive rework and helping businesses invest in required process and technology changes ahead of time.

The project will incorporate a novel approach to direct engagement with potential hydrogen consumers via a Community Impact Panel (CIP) which will provide Customers in Vulnerable Situations (CIVS) and businesses an opportunity to present their needs to ensure requirements are captured. 

The project will also deliver novel solutions to community engagement, including digital engagement tools, and uncover previously unknown areas for future innovation that the hydrogen transition will need to consider when supporting marginalized sections of society.

Innovation Justification

The problem: Decarbonising gas will make a huge impact on net zero because heating is responsible for a third of the UK's greenhouse gases. Switching from carbon-emitting natural gas to hydrogen gas is one way we can decarbonise our energy system and offer customers a low cost, low disruption solution to heating their homes, while fighting climate change.

However, consumers will be affected in different ways by the change to hydrogen, with CIVS and small businesses more at risk. 24 million people display a form of vulnerability (FCA) and 70% of businesses that seek support consider themselves vulnerable (Citizen's Advice Bureau).

For CIVS, the process of switching to hydrogen may present challenges before during and after the change. And for vulnerable businesses, new hydrogen appliances, boilers, meters, change in pipes and additional ventilation may be required.

Innovation: There is little research into how CIVS and businesses will adapt to the introduction of hydrogen gas (See Appendix). Hy-Fair will deliver novel solutions enabling a smoother hydrogen transition by:

• Utilising the CIP for consumer research to understand consumer needs.
• Fill knowledge gaps of acceptability criteria for varying demographics.
• Understand where / when investment needs to be made.
• Develop communication and education tools for engagement with all customer architypes.
• Develop technical innovations to support consumers throughout the transition.

Gaps in current work: Whilst there has been engineering work to understand the transition to hydrogen gas, consumer research is limited. There is a need to understand the impact of transitioning to hydrogen, recognizing societal needs. Some research that has taken place includes:

• SGN's Omnibus project consulted 1500 consumers to understand awareness of low carbon replacements for gas.
• An NIA project investigating safeguarding during the switchover to hydrogen gas.
  The project will incorporate this research to avoid duplication.

Value: Hy-Fair will deliver value against the current counterfactual by:

• Paving the way for an inclusive hydrogen transition ensuring hydrogen gas works for everyone.
• Avoiding consumer opposition and expensive rework.
• Helping businesses invest in process and technology changes.
• Creating new 'green' business opportunities.
• Avoiding breakdowns of equipment leading to economic and health impacts.

The Discovery project will quantify the economic and sustainability benefits to enable prioritization of solutions in later phases.

Funding justification: The hydrogen transition remains uncertain. However, if new policy involves a roll-out of hydrogen gas, networks and wider stakeholders will need to be prepared to tackle the challenges being addressed in this project.

Project Benefits

Consumer Benefits: Solutions developed through Hy-Fair will positively impact consumers through a range of financial and social benefits.

• Savings: Question 5 highlighted routes by which Hy-Fair can deliver cost savings to customers.
• Business opportunities: A 'green' label on business activities can allow businesses to charge more for their services - a transition to a hydrogen gas supply opens these pathways for some businesses.
• Social and psychological wellbeing: Major changes to home heating can cause significant distress, particularly for CIVS. Hy-Fair will help develop appropriate communication methods to reach CIVS, facilitating the transparency and openness required to minimize the adverse impacts of change on CIVS. This will deliver significant social benefit through reducing anxiety surrounding the hydrogen gas transition.
• Contribution to Net Zero: By engaging with a wide variety of consumer groups, a feeling of contribution shall be generated, which adds significant social value and supports well-being. Marginalized parts of society often experience feelings of isolation from societal trends such as low carbon/net zero -- this project would enable contribution to this agenda.
• Health: The impact on urban and domestic air quality of burning hydrogen gas in the home will need careful assessment. People who are acutely vulnerable to nitrogen oxide levels might have concerns about the impact of the transition. Hy-Fair will assist in identifying the scale of this problem and making the case for tight regulation on hydrogen burner design to mitigate these problems.

Metrics: Hy-Fair will develop solutions that will pave the way for a smoother hydrogen gas transition for CIVS and businesses. Solutions shall be developed that support consumers before, during and following the transition. Metrics for assessing the effectiveness of the project on an ongoing basis shall be developed as follows:

• Projected benefits: The Discovery phase shall conduct a high-level financial and social cost benefit analysis to understand the benefits based on different hydrogen adoption scenarios.
• Solutions Assessment: The solutions to be established in Discovery and trialled in later phases shall be assessed as to capability of contributing to the projected benefits.
• Validation: During Alpha/Beta trials the solutions assessment effectiveness shall be validated considering technical capability and ongoing consumer feedback. These trials shall be aligned with existing early adoption projects including H100 Fife.

BAU Metrics: In Beta and beyond, metrics shall be put in place to continue to assess Hy-Fair solutions effectiveness so that they can be adapted if necessary, including a framework for continuous improvement.