The project will look to develop an asset category framework and database to enable the networks to collate all the information, evidence and data generated from previous network hydrogen projects into one central location. This will help to highlight where evidence gaps still exist and the interventions required to fill them. The database will expand on the ENA NSIB evidence framework with each of the themes within this framework further divided into categories and sub-categories.
The project will bring visibility to the status of the research work overall, identifying expected completion dates, RAG categorisation of the research work in terms of remaining knowledge gap, and will also help to avoid any unnecessary duplication within hydrogen projects and trials.
Benefits
The gas networks currently share findings from their trial projects either directly with project partners or through industry groups like the ENA. This project will aim to document a detailed framework of all the areas that need to be addressed, the research and development work produced to date, the status and acceptance level of this work, and identify any remaining gaps.
The scope of work will take inputs from the gas networks and any relevant supporting hydrogen transition research projects. The information gathered will be shared with the ENA and the gas networks and peer reviewed. The output of this scope of work will support the FEED phase of successful Hydrogen Village application during 2022.
Each stage will be followed up with a group presentation of the work developed to date to facilitate group discussion and the transfer of information. The project aims to bypass potential issues that gas networks have with sharing information of ongoing projects by collating information on the nature of the research, sharing preliminary findings, assessing how successful the research has been in addressing gaps i.e. any red flags or further gaps identified and indicating when the research report will be released for sharing/peer review with other gas networks.
The project database will link to research reports as they are made available either through the gas network website or the IGEM Hydrogen Knowledge Centre. A SharePoint site (or similar) will also be created for any additional reports/information that are not publicly available but can be shared amongst named personnel who are stakeholders within this project. DNV will create and initially manage the database.
Learnings
Outcomes
The project produced an agreed framework of asset categories and a centralised database of all relevant evidence produced by the networks on hydrogen. The database recorded complete, ongoing, and planned projects and evidence, thus giving good visibility of the full evidence generation process and avoiding duplication.
The project completed an assessment of the evidence and provided a RAG classification and gap analysis to identify knowledge gaps in the evidence. Based on this assessment, interventions required to close any outstanding gaps were developed.
The key deliverable was a report describing the function of the database and summarising the main outcomes.
The above outcomes have allowed networks to scope new projects targeted at closing identified gaps. The potential for a third phase of this project has become apparent, as the database can still be further refined and streamlined, HSE feedback can be added, and new project evidence should continuously be included.
Lessons Learnt
DESNZ developed their own evidence management system (EMS) concurrently with this project's database, and monitored its progress throughout to faciliate the development of the EMS.
This project highlighted the lack of coordination between networks when building the case for hydrogen. A new board was founded as a result to agree on a coordinated approach, to create a critical path of projects, and to prioritise evidence submission and generation.
The database was designed to be a live document and requires a high degree of participation from the networks. Adoption and continued use by the networks is important however, as it could assist in evidence reviews with the HSE as they look to address their list of safety considerations for the policy decision.
