Learnings

Outcomes

Frazer-Nash: The outcomes of the project were a Final Report and a Public Facing final report. The Final report contains all data and methodologies used, with the Public Facing report being a redacted version of the final report. 
 
Frontier produced a number of slide-pack documents for different audiences over the initial phases of the project. This includes a finalised scoping pack for WWU, a summary of processes and systems that underpin settlement, billing and network charging, and discussion slides for stakeholder engagement sessions. These represent intermediary outputs which acted as resources to inform the final report. A final report was produced.  

Lessons Learnt

Frazer-Nash:  

The project produced the following conclusions and recommendations which should be taken into account when carrying out a site-specific feasibility study on conversion.

• De-blending of hydrogen and LPG would be unlikely to occur at the expected conditions within an existing LPG network where LPG is kept gaseous. Stability would not be expected to change with hydrogen blending and the gases would remain blended throughout the network.
• Increasing hydrogen fractions in the network need increased flow rates to maintain an equivalent energy to the end user. This would cause pressure drop increases and a potential need to increase pipework diameter or pressure drop allowances to improve capacity for a transition to a 100% hydrogen supply.
• It is recommended that rigorous modelling of the network including operating pressures and pressure drop is undertaken should the network transition to hydrogen blends, to reduce inefficiencies that may arise with high flow rate through small diameter pipework.
• The existing PE based network would be compatible with hydrogen up to the maximum operating pressure of the network.

Frontier:

The project has not encountered significant methodological challenges, although some changes to the structure and style of stakeholder engagement were found to be necessary, given the nature of the issues uncovered from the scoping phase of work. A key learning has been the benefit of focusing on early targeted engagement with stakeholders to understand the processes around the flow of information, the viability of solutions considered, and the practical constraints that they face.  

It was challenging to obtain the level of detailed inputs from some of the necessary experts due to competing demands on their time. When the project moves to the next phase, it will be important to factor this into timelines.