Wales & West Utilities to demonstrate gas-electricity sector coupling

GB distribution operator Wales & West Utilities is leading development of ‘interactive smart energy sites’ coupling gas and electricity as an approach to improving system resilience.

The HyVoltage project as it is named is aimed to assess the viability of introducing flexible energy vector conversion sites with integrated ‘smart links’ between the gas and electricity distribution networks.

These sites would produce hydrogen for storage or the gas grid when electricity supply exceeds demand in order to make better use of wind and solar and generate clean power when it’s needed on the electricity grid.

With this some of the key challenges to delivering a net zero energy system could be helped to be overcome, the operator believes. These include the ability to store energy, produce low carbon gas, generate electricity when it’s needed most and integrate these technologies with the energy network.

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“Gas and electricity distribution networks will be required to work together to achieve net zero emissions targets and secure future system resilience,” comments Sian Rowlands, Innovation Manager at Wales & West Utilities.

“If successful, our project hopes to show that exploiting existing gas network infrastructure is crucial to transitioning to a green energy system, offering significant cost savings for networks and consumers, regardless of whether the networks are used for distribution, storage or both.”

In the project, consideration will be given to the benefits of this technology and the barriers to its implementation, including a roadmap identifying the technical, commercial, policy and regulatory changes required to maximise the benefits of the technology.

A key output is anticipated to be a strategic view of the feasibility of vector conversion links and the beneficial role these could play in enabling gas network infrastructure to play its full role in the net zero transition.

Other partners in the HyVoltage project include National Grid Electricity Distribution, the universities of Bristol and Imperial College London, Frazer Nash consultancy and Cornwall Insight.

Wales & West Utilities supplies gas to about 2.5 million households and businesses in Wales and the west of England.

The company reports having started 19 new projects focussed on approaches to achieving net zero over 2022/23 and a further 38 projects are planned for the rest of the year and into 2024.