The outcome of this project will be the demonstration of a novel 100% hydrogen metering system that is currently in development. The meter will be tested alongside other metering technologies to validate its capability and accuracy. Metering of up to 30% hydrogen is possible with small changes to current systems but 100% hydrogen requires a new metering system. A test skid will be built to enable testing and to understand the accuracy of the novel flow metering technologies in Hydrogen at high pressure. Determining the changes that need to take place to continue maintaining an accurate energy balance for consumers in a net zero network.
Benefits
Utilising our FutureGrid facility, this project shall provide evidence that we can accurately measure significant volumes of Hydrogen on and off our network, for the benefit of our 100% H2 backbone "Project Union". This will demonstrate that we are able to continue managing the energy balance of a Hydrogen network, as we do today for a natural gas network.
Learnings
Outcomes
Maturity TRL6-7 Different meter technologies have been shown to be functional for a range of flow ranges and pressures, more work required to demonstrate the entire measurement system can be operated at existing requirements.
Opportunity >50% or multiple asset classes A range of technologies (coriolis, USM, clamp on and turbine) were successfully deployed however all fall within GQM&T.
Deployment costs - No deployment scheduled currently.
Innovation cost £927,431 Full project cost including design and installation of skid, purchase of two meters, calibration of reference meter and operation of FutureGrid facility for testubg.
Financial Saving - This project is not expected to result in financial savings currently.
Safety 100% Full safety and compatibillity has been dmeonstrated.
Environment - No immediate savings but is required for future low carbon networks
Compliance Ensures compliance Can be held to same compliance standards e.g., ME/2.
Skills & Competencies Departmental The immediate projects outputs will be used by the GQM&T team when deciding on asset choices for future hydrogen deployment, corresponding output will be required by the H2 system operator to ensure balanced system.
Future proof Must have for business strategy Accurate metering and billing is a prerequisite to any future hydrogen transmission system.
The benefits delivered by this project so far include:
- Demonstration of the viability of several metering types for the provision of hydrogen transmission metering at a similar quality to that seen today for natural gas.
- Turbine and USM shown to have good precision outside of outliers.
- Further analysis correcting the measured flow rates for density by back calculating a binary ratio of hydrogen and nitrogen from the USM velocity sound resulted in an improved percentage difference and repeatability between results, with a percentage difference less than 1% for higher flow rates.
- Project has highlighted the important of accurate density data for ~100% hydrogen.
- Skid remains in place (minus USM) to permit future testing.
Lessons Learnt
The most significant learning that can be taken from this project, with regard to project methodology, relates to the assignment of specific tasks amongst a delivery team containing >1 supplier, especially with longer projects where individuals may join/leave the project throughout. In this instance, whilst it may have been clear to individuals at project conception exactly which tasks fell to which organisation (DNV, Kelton or NGT,) this inherent knowledge was lost as the project progressed over an extended period of time. The contract contained a project plan which listed actions against organisations, however it was minimal in detail and listed both Kelton and DNV against several actions without specifying details. In this project, potential confusion was managed by good collaboration and flexibility amongst the project team. In the future, it would be useful to specify in good detail exactly which organisations are responsible for which actions on the contract – especially where projects involve more than one supplier.
The demonstration that took place under this project was effective at meeting it’s aims and objectives, through the success criteria identified. This is described in detail above in section 4.
