Hydrogen Transport and Storage Network Pathways
Forecasts of hydrogen supply and demand:
Guided by existing external forecasts of future energy needs, such as the ESO’s Future Energy Scenarios (FES), and we have drawn on external analysis and recommendations from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) and National Infrastructure Commission (NIC). An overview of these variables is set out later in this chapter. Analysing current evidence: The next stage of the process was to assess the current state of the evidence across these variables and what that evidence suggests about near-term T&S network requirements.
Consideration of the strategic objectives, the possible futures for the hydrogen economy and the current state of evidence across demand and the technical characteristics of T&S infrastructure, has informed our assessment of priority T&S network needs.
These have been used to set the ambition for the first allocation rounds of the transport and storage business models (HTBM, HSBM). Options to deliver network needs: The final step of strategic planning, the selection of options for fulfilling network needs, will in the near term be taken on predominantly by the allocation process of the HTBM and HSBM for transport and storage infrastructure respectively. Initial high-level proposals for this process are set out in Hydrogen Transport and Storage Market Engagement Documents, published alongside this Pathway. Alongside this, we are working to ensure that suitable market and regulatory frameworks are in place to support the development of T&S infrastructure,
Strategic planning can provide greater certainty on network requirements both in the short and longer term. It can give clarity and confidence to potential consumers, producers and infrastructure projects, fuelling the growth of the hydrogen economy. It is also intended to inform the allocation of the hydrogen storage and transport business models.
