in December the ministry also cancelled progression of a village-scale hydrogen trial at Winlaton near Redcar, pictured.

Officials now believe the low carbon gas, in either its fossil-fuel-derived blue hue, or the cleaner green variety electrolysed with wind-generated electricity, may have a role to play in heat decarbonisation, but in slower time and in only ‘some’ locations.

D-ESNZ plans to take a final decision in 2026, after assessing evidence including from a neighbourhood-scale hydrogen trial in Fife and other studies across Europe.

Britain’s four main operators of gas networks have lobbied Whitehall hard for hydrogen to be viewed as a panacea, a high convenience, low cost replacement for methane-heavy, climate-wrecking ‘natural’ gas in Britain’s 30 million homes.

In October 2022, the then D-BEIS ministry invited the four to commit to operational trials, leading to mass deployment.  All four responded with business plans.

But the hydrogen drive had been opposed as impractical, manipulative and still polluting by advocates for electric heat.

One immediately welcomed Whitehall’s backtracking yesterday.  James Standley, chief technical officer of Truro-based Kensa, Britain’s only manufacturer of heat pumps, and a company part-owned by Octopus Energy,  said abandoning the village-scale trial was “further recognition that hydrogen has no major role to play in future home heating”.

“Every academic study on the issue, the economics and the physics demonstrates this”, Standley went on. “The government should now take the next logical step and rule out hydrogen heating for anything other than a small number of very specific cases.

Electrification, whether via heat pumps or heat networks, remains the best and quickest way to achieve clean heat while ensuring the best outcomes for consumers, Standley opined.

“The longer hydrogen remains part of the conversation”, the Kensa boss said, “the further the transition will be delayed, hampering the speed at which these already proven technologies are rolled out.”

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During the project’s first stage last winter, just under 400 households achieved a total network turndown of 10.8MWh – the energy needed to make more than 300,000 cups of tea.

Equinox is the latest and among the biggest of Britain’s flex trials, as DSO and retailers gauge the acceptability to consumers of mass-participation load-shifting to ease pressure on grids.  NG and partners promote Equinox and heat pump use as delivering lower energy bills too to homes.

Taking Equinox into its second stage this winter, NG is enlisting help from project partners Octopus Energy, Scottish Power and Sero.   In its role as a distribution system operator (DSO), it will do through new commercial and technical arrangements, designed to unlock flex potential from low carbon home heating.

The Equinox project began in December 2022 and will run for exactly three years. The second stage of the trial launched last month.

Last winter, 386 heat pump owners across National Grid’s distribution franchises in the Midlands, South West and South Wales signed up. They turned off their heat pumps for 22 two-hour periods between 5pm and 7pm, in exchange for savings on their bills over the trial period.

During the trial, households provided a total measurable household turndown of 10.8 MWh equivalent, says NG, to the power needed to make 300,000 cups of tea.

Customer response was overwhelmingly positive, with 92% of participants reporting they were moderately or extremely satisfied with their experience

Matt Watson from National Grid DSO said: “The initial results from our Equinox trials show that heat pump flexibility can help manage the demand on electricity through the distribution network while simultaneously saving customers money on their energy bills.

“Feedback from participants so far have shown that these kind of flexibility measures do not compromise the comfort of households and that the customer experience was positive.

“As thousands more homes switch to heat pumps, flexible systems like this are going to be even more crucial to balance demand at key times. Trials like Equinox’s show that customers are willing to tweak their everyday lives to save money and help balance the system.”

As with the first trial, the second was open to any Octopus Energy, Sero and ScottishPower customers with heat pumps connected to National Grid’s distribution network in the East or West Midlands, South West or South Wales.

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Last winter the NG-ESO ran its first two batches of national trials for its DFS, designed to gauge how responsive home power users are – or could made to be – to messages that time-shifting will save them money.

As part of the experiment, the NG-ESO and participating suppliers advertised the cash advantages to homes who switched heavy usage devices such as washing machines to run overnight or outside times of peak power demand.

Results of the trials, as analysed on behalf of one battery vendor, were released this morning.  Kit retailer SolarEdge is heralding their insights as a ‘game changer’ in the promotion of home storage of electricity.

Unlike ‘manual turn-down’ participants, owners of SolarEdge’s Home Battery earned financial rewards for their stored battery power during peak hours, without having to reduce their electricity usage.

Consumption monitoring company Smart Metering Systems (SMS) used SolarEdge’s smart control technology to charge participants’ batteries remotely ahead of each DFS event and then maximize power export to the grid over the hours of the DFS event’s duration.

Autonomous control removed the need for homeowners possessing Solar Edge batteries to tweak the times when they ran high-consuming household devices.

The company’s analysis finds that participating battery owners earned up to ten times more financial rewards than participants paid by the DFS for manually tweaking – “time-shifting” – usage by big household appliances.

The highest financial reward received by a battery owner during a single DFS event was £25.60, against an average reward received of £6.52. In comparison, UK manual turn-down participants in the DFS trails received only £0.90 or so per DFS event on average.

In the six DFS events which SolarEdge batter owners participated in, the highest total reward achieved by a battery participant was £100.61. Projections by Smart Metering Systems suggest that if the DFS service becomes an enduring year-round service, domestic battery owners could earn over £300 per year.

The National Grid benefitted too from the DFS’ cuts in demand, through power flows re-scheduled to times when the grid could accommodate them.

Analysts found that participating battery-equipped homes were up to six times more effective in trimming back grid demand than UK homeowners manually twiddling appliances’ knobs. On average, battery-enabled participants exported 2.7 kWh to the grid per DFS event, compared to a reduction of 0.5 kWh or less posted by the average manual turn-down participant.

Mark Hamilton, managing director for FlexiGrid at analysts SMS, concluded: “Introducing automation into the DFS has game-changing potential to amplify significantly the volume of homeowner participation next winter and in future DFS events, and subsequently boost the impact of grid stabilization using home batteries.

“The ability to remotely schedule participants’ batteries to autonomously charge ahead of each DFS event and maximize power export to the grid”, said Hamilton, “means homeowners can earn passive income while consuming electricity as normal.

“This is in contrast to the DFS participants required to actively change their behaviour to earn energy bill savings. This was a key factor in the drop-off of participation we saw as the national DFS scheme went on.”

From home storage vendor SolarEdge, its Western Europe regional manager Amit Larom oberved: “We’ve seen first-hand the significant value battery-enabled flexibility response delivers to homeowners and grid operators alike.

“Home batteries enable homeowners to lower their energy bills and increase their savings by leveraging excess solar during evenings when electricity tariffs are at their highest.

“Participating in demand response programmes can further help improve the economics of purchasing a home battery”, said the SolarEdge salesperson.

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Oxford Flow will provide hydrogen-ready gas pressure regulators, smaller and lighter than their natural gas equivalents.  The devices will be used to test decommissioned gas pipelines with 100% pure hydrogen.

Zero-emissions hydrogen is seen as the cheapest, most direct remedy to methane-dependent ‘natural’ gas. Domestic heating alone accounts for 37% of all UK carbon emissions.

Modern gas appliances are designed to operate with blends of up to 23% hydrogen. But recent small trials such as  Northern Gas Networks’ HyDeploy pilot in Gateshead have needed dispensation from Ofgem.

That’s because current rules dating from 1996 limit the gas’s concentration to a miniscule 0.1% over public grids.  The guidelines are scheduled for revision this year under the government’s Hydrogen Strategy.

Oxford Flow’s regulators are designed to make the retrofitting of existing gas systems easier and to reduce future maintenance.

With other gas distribution networks, SGN has ambitions to develop the world’s first zero-carbon gas grid. It will be based on existing pipelines which the firm manages, delivering both natural and low carbon gas to six million homes and businesses across southern England and Scotland.

Gemma Simpson, SGN’s director of LTS Futures, pictured left, said: “Our project will enable wide-scale system transformation of the UK gas network to hydrogen, driving decarbonisation and supporting our Net Zero goals. We are excited to be partnering with Oxford Flow to use this latest innovation as we transition to clean energy.

“Using Oxford Flow’s valves and regulators will help establish a hydrogen-ready solution for pressure regulating equipment. They will not only future proof our systems by being hydrogen ready and tested, but also by removing leak points common in valves to reduce emissions.”

Later this year SGN’s LTS Futures team will join with Oxford Flow’s field technicians to test samples of decommissioned pipe at an industry research and testing facility in Spadeadam in Cumbria.

The test results will inform the next stage of the LTS Futures project, a live hydrogen repurposing trial and demonstration next year, using a decommissioned pipeline at Grangemouth.

For Oxford Flow, Faris Churcher, pictured centre, said: “We’re delighted to be working with SGN as part of the LTS Futures project. When conversations began, the focus was on efficacy of pipeline infrastructure and its ability to transport hydrogen. However, the pipelines themselves are not the only infrastructure – or equipment – that needs careful consideration.”

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The Decommissioning Alliance (TDA), comprising nuclear fabricators Westinghouse, Jacobs and consulting engineers Atkins, is tasked with installing equipment to allow operators to safely retrieve debris laying at the bottom of radioactive fuel ponds at sites operated by the watchdog Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, so the recovered material can be passed into safe, long-term storage.

The team achieved the feat by attaching an industrial pump to a 40-metre flexible pipe.  The leech-like tool can then suck away the sludge for safe storage.

During the process, remotely operated vehicles lock a hinged double boom arm in position. Project manager Scott Bond said: “The work we are carrying out at the site has been running since 2010. It’s designed to help us reduce the inventory in the pond, which in turn reduces the overall risk.

“Our new methodology of installing the BSRT and the umbilical has the potential to be a game changer.

The trial is designed to ensure 100 per cent certainty of safety when handling irradiated, corrosive waste.

Bond added: “Using the excellent indoor facility meant we were able to successfully trial the methods and replicate site conditions on more than one occasion, ensuring the TDA installation team are familiar with the equipment, tooling and installation sequence, when the time comes to putting the learning into live action.”

Forth’s projects director Graham Cartwright added: “It’s been great to be able to play a part in what is such a major development for the nuclear industry”.

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Infrastructure construction & management multinational Acciona put the British firm’s Hi-Tower S-series 50KvA power maker through its paces over six months last year, evaluating it for building sites needing temporary feeds at high flow.

Announced to investors today, the Dunsfold, Surrey manufacturer’s order from Acciona covers a 30kW air-cooled fuel cell and in combination a probable 45 kWh battery. AFC will buy and link a suitable storage system, based on the end customer’s power needs.

The lease will be for six months, ending in options either to buy or extend. Delivery is promised for later this year. The order’s value was not disclosed.

Responsible for building light rail systems in Melbourne & Quito, Ecuador, the Spanish multinational sees the Surrey firm’s solution as a step towards replacing its fleet of diesel-based generators, with ratings ranging from 30 kVA to 80 kVA.   Its clean power subsidiary Acciona Energy already generates 21 TWh of renewable power per year.

Lessons from last year’s trial have convinced the British manufacturer that it should add the 30 kVA product to its range.   The new platform will house 12  air cooled “S” Series fuel cell systems, each rated at 2.5kW, producing high voltage DC.

AFC Energy, providers of remote power to among others the Extreme-E off-grid EV internatinational race series, says its 50 kVA solution delivers four times the output of its earlier H-Power Tower, while posting lower running costs.

Successive capital raises exceeding £60 million in recent years have been followed by CEO Adam Bond’s enterprise accept an equity stake from Swedish engineer ABB.   Green power supply to data centre operators underpins that relationship.

Of the Acciona deal, Bond commented: “This is is a key relationship for AFC Energy. It provided us with support in defining the “voice of the customer” in a way that has informed the design specification and operation of our new 50kVA H-Power S Series emissions-free genset.

“Decarbonisation of the construction industry, in the UK, Europe and internationally is an important step in society’s move towards Net Zero”, the AFC boss added.  “This development highlights the importance that leadership plays in driving long term sustainable change across this industry.”

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Improved design of devices intended to extract ambient heat from air means they are delivering more heat at lower cost, long-term research funded by the Energy Systems Catapult claims.

With backing from the D-ESNZ energy ministry, sponsors from the Zero Innovation Centre recruited three contractors in logging output and efficiencies for over 700 installed ASHPs through two British winters and a summer up to last August.

On the coldest days, the in-situ equipment averaged output efficiencies of 2.88 times over a twelve month test interval, a 40% rise on a similar mass test in 2014.

The Energy Systems Catapult study found no significant difference between the efficiencies of pumps working at lower or higher temperatures.   The latter process air at temperatures close to those reached by gas boilers.

Air- or ground-sourced pumps with minimal emissions are central to the government’s ambition to strip carbon from Britain’s homes & workplaces by 2035.  Under its £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme, the Johnson government last April began offering £5,000 grants in a bid to have 600,000 installed in the nation’s homes by 2027, up from only 35,000 put in during 2020.

After eighteen months of field research, the ESC plans a further series of evaluations.  But Marc Brown the study’s research lead, says it has already slayed one myth, that ASHPs work badly in cold weather.

“With the release of this data, we can finally put to bed the notion that heat pumps do not work in cold weather conditions and that they are inefficient”, said Brown.

“We’ve observed the exact opposite. They are three times more efficient than gas boilers and work in cold weather conditions. Innovation is changing the game in the heating sector.

The ESC research boss called for government and industry to press for more re-training of installers, more promotion and more investment in the technology’s supply chains.

“We’ve done the hard work and demonstrated that heat pumps work”, said Brown. ”The UK is heat pump ready”.

Read the ESC report here.

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Two of Drax’s two remaining coal-furnaces are reportedly being ‘warmed’ up at Selby today, as is one turbine at EDF’s West Burton plant on the River Trent, following requests yesterday from the nation’s backbone power transmitter.

The requests comply with the winter contingency contract, which the operator sealed last summer with Britain’s last two generators to use coal.

NG-ESO is also engaging retailers to implement load shifting tonight, asking them to pay customers for a second time as much as £3 per kWh foregone to turn down home heat and reschedule other power-intensive applications such as cooking in electric ovens in the hour after 5pm.

The grid first enacted DSR in December, following successful trials of its flexible response offering among 26 licensed suppliers. Uptake then from volunteer households was big enough to avoid extra generation by coal.

Windless skies caused by high pressure stationary over the country for several days are behind the detour back to a possible partial resort to coal.   Wind power dropped yesterday to only 6.89 GW, or around 18% of all electricity consumed.

Averaged over all of 2022, wind power accounted for 26.8% of UK consumption.   On 10 January this year, British wind farms set a new record, producing 21.69GWh in one day.

“Our forecasts show electricity supply margins are expected to be tighter than normal on Monday evening,” the ESO announced over the weekend.

“We have instructed coal-fired power units to be available to increase electricity supplies should it be needed tomorrow evening.

“This does not mean electricity supplies are at risk and people should not be worried. These are precautionary measures to maintain the buffer of spare capacity we need.”

Today’s hiatus comes as UK generation becomes ever greener. December saw over half of our electricity originating from zero-carbon sources.  According to ESO, 30 December saw a new record high, with a peak of 87.2% of electricity coming from zero-carbon sources in one day.

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Five completed trial events in recent weeks of the Demand Flexibility Service have shown curtailments by consumers at scale can ease network loading and yield cash savings to users.

Data harvested from the first two events shows consumers have exceeded savings targets by at least 35%, the National Grid ESO said.

With over 1 million homes connected through 26 power suppliers signed up to the NG’s Demand Flexibility Service, its five trial events are on course to deliver 0.78 GWh in demand reduction, according to the ESO.

The DFS was initiated to quantify for the first time the feasibility of DSR among aggregated households, as collected by their suppliers. Majors such as British Gas, EoN, Octopus and EDF are on board.

In the first test household last month, providers delivered a 50% increase in electricity reduction compared to expectations, as their customers responded for the first time to DFS promptings to shift loads out of early evening windows.

Across the second test, consumers also continued to deliver greater than expected engagement, reducing their electricity use by 35% more than expected.

Across both tests so far measured, the Demand Flexibility service delivered a total of 314.2 MWh of demand reduction.  On carbon intensities prevailing across the UK backbone, NG-ESO calculates that equates to the CO2 absorbed by a forest of 10,000 trees in a year.

Further tests will be carried out across the length of the service. Each supplier will run at least two more every month between now and the end of March.

The continuation will give providers the chance to sign up more customers – both household or enterprise – into the flex service.  Success garnered should give licenced suppliers a positive message to take back to bill-payers, or so the NG-ESO believes.

Craig Dyke, the NG-ESO’s head of national control, observed: “Delivering the first of the Demand Flexibility Service test events is a major milestone in the evolution of consumer flexibility in the UK.

This service successfully proves that consumers up and down the country are standing by to get involved in flexibility solutions. These test results show that if called upon this service will help the ESO balance the national electricity network this winter and is a valuable addition to the ESO’s operational tools.”

• Earlier, six trade bodies representing energy practitioners had warned D-BEIS secretary Grant Shapps that constraints lingering across UK distribution & transmission networks imperil Britain’s attainment of Net Zero by 2050.

Generation or storage projects are facing waits as long as fifteen years in consequence of capacity chokepoints, organisations including the Electricity Storage Network told the minister, in a letter organised by not-for-profit lobbyists Regen.

The trade bodies fear such constraints are delaying billions of pounds of private investment promoting green power generation, electricity storage, heat pumps and EV rapid chargers.  

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SP Energy Networks is keen to hear from regional businesses, developers and chargepoint operators (CPOs) who are currently considering the installation of chargepoints, and may like to take part in this trial. This trial is part of the Charge Project, an initiative from SP Energy Networks and its partners EA Technology, PTV Group and Smarter Grid Solutions which aims to accelerate the roll-out of public EV charging infrastructure in the region.

Geoff Murphy, lead for the Charge Project at SP Energy Networks, said: “Creating a comprehensive EV charging infrastructure is vital to helping our communities achieve their net zero carbon goals and a key part of the ‘green economic recovery’ of the UK post-COVID-19. To make that happen, we need to safely and effectively manage the demand on the electricity network that increased EV charging will create. We believe that smart charging connections are a vital part of the solution – the results from this trial will improve our understanding of how they work in real world scenarios.”

Encouraging more people to drive electric vehicles is a key element of the UK meeting its climate change targets and achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Smart charging connections should help to accelerate this process by enabling more chargepoints to be installed in the same location, making them more attractive to businesses and investors, and thus boosting the country’s EV charging capacity.

Dr Graham Ault, Executive Director at Smarter Grid Solutions, said: “If the UK is to genuinely embrace a greener future, there needs to be a dramatic increase in the number of EV chargepoints available to drivers. Companies and site owners may have been put off in the past from installing chargepoints due to excessive costs or distribution network issues, but smart charging connection technology can help to solve these problems. This is a vital part of the Charge Project’s commitment to deliver both economic and environmental benefits to communities across the country.”

A smart charging connection can automatically detect if the CPO needs to reduce chargepoint capacity during periods of peak demand, ensuring the electricity network is never overloaded. It can also increase chargepoint capacity during off-peak periods or when power from alternative sources such as solar PV is available. By intelligently managing demand in this way, a smart charging connection can enable the installation of more chargepoints in a single location without the need for expensive network reinforcements. The flexibility of smart charging connections also means that owners can potentially offer consumers faster or cheaper charging outside periods of peak demand

The next milestone for the Charge Project will be the rollout of the ConnectMore tool, a public-facing web application that will help businesses and local authorities identify suitable sites for new chargepoints and estimate the cost of connecting them to the network.

If you or your business is currently considering the installation of chargepoints and would be interested in taking part, you can register your interest here: https://www.spenergynetworks.co.uk/pages/charge_expression_of_interest_form.aspx

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