Policy & Socio-Economics

With more renewables on the Swedish electricity market while decommissioning nuclear power plants electricity supply increasingly fluctuates and electricity prices are more volatile. There is hence a need for securing the electricity supply before energy storage solutions become widespread. Electricity price fluctuations moreover affect operating income of nuclear power plants due to their inherent operational inflexibility. Since the anticipated new applications of hydrogen in fuel cell vehicles and steel production producing hydrogen has become a potential source of income particularly when there is a surplus supply of electricity at low prices. The feasibility of investing in hydrogen production was investigated in a nuclear power plant applying Swedish energy policy as background. The analysis applies a system dynamics approach incorporating the stochastic feature of electricity supply and prices. The study revealed that hydrogen production brings alternative opportunities for large-scale electricity production facilities in Sweden. Factors such as hydrogen price will be influential and require in-depth investigation. This study provides guidelines for power sector policymakers and managers who plan to engage in hydrogen production for industrial applications. Although this study was focused upon nuclear power sources it can be extended to hydrogen production from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

The world is undergoing a substantial energy transition with an increasing share of intermittent sources of energy on the grid which is increasing the challenges to operate the power grid reliably. An option that has been receiving much focus after the COVID pandemic is the development of a hydrogen economy. Challenges for a hydrogen economy are the high investment costs involved in compression storage and long-distance transportation. This paper analyses an innovative proposal for the creation of hydrogen ocean links. It intends to fill existing gaps in the creation of a hydrogen economy with the increase in flexibility and viability for hydrogen production consumption compression storage and transportation. The main concept behind the proposals presented in this paper consists of using the fact that the pressure in the deep sea is very high which allows a thin and cheap HDPE tank to store and transport large amounts of pressurized hydrogen in the deep sea. This is performed by replacing seawater with pressurized hydrogen and maintaining the pressure in the pipes similar to the outside pressure. Hydrogen Deep Ocean Link has the potential of increasing the interconnectivity of different regional energy grids into a global sustainable interconnected energy system.

This report provides you with the information you need if you have plans to interact with or connect to our gas networks. Our vision is to set the standards that all of our customers love and others aspire to. This means that our long-term plans are shaped by our customers and stakeholders. This annual publication is an important opportunity to share our latest long-term plan and our strategic thinking and seek feedback so we can continue to adapt our activities going forward. We want to make it as easy and efficient as possible for you to interact with us.

​Cadent Long Term Development Plan 2019​​​

Decentralisation and sector coupling are becoming increasingly crucial for the decarbonisation of the energy system. Resources such as waste and water have high energy recovery potential and are required as inputs for various conversion technologies; however waste and water have not yet been considered in sector coupling approaches but only in separate examinations. In this work an open-source sector coupling optimisation model considering all of these resources and their utilisation is developed and applied in a test-bed in an Israeli city. Our investigations include an impact assessment of energy recovery and resource utilisation in the transition to a hydrogen economy with regard to the inclusion of greywater and consideration of emissions. Additionally sensitivity analyses are performed in order to assess the complexity level of energy recovery. The results demonstrate that waste and water energy recovery can provide high contributions to energy generation. Furthermore greywater use can be vital to cover the water demands in scarcity periods thus saving potable water and enabling the use of technology. Regarding the transition to hydrogen technologies resource energy recovery and management have an even higher effect than in the original setup. However without appropriate resource management a reduction in emissions cannot be achieved. Furthermore the sensitivity analyses indicate the existence of complex relationships between energy recovery technologies and other energy system operations.

The North Sea region located in the Northwest of Europe is expected to be a frontrunner in the European energy transition. This paper aims to analyse different optimal system configurations in order to meet net-zero emission targets in 2050. Overall the paper presents two main contributions: first we develop and introduce the IESA-NS model. The IESA-NS model is an optimization integrated energy system model written as a linear problem. The IESA-NS model optimizes the long-term investment planning and short-term operation of seven North Sea region countries (Belgium Denmark Germany the Netherlands Norway Sweden and the United Kingdom). The model can optimize multiple years simultaneously accounts for all the national GHG emissions and includes a thorough representation of all the sectors of the energy system. Second we run several decarbonisation scenarios with net-zero emission targets in 2050. Relevant parameters varied to produce the scenarios include biomass availability VRE potentials low social acceptance of onshore VRE ban of CCUS or mitigation targets in international transport and industry feedstock. Results show a large use of hydrogen when international transport emissions are considered in the targets (5.6 EJ to 7.3 EJ). Electrolysis is the preferred pathway for hydrogen production (up to 6.4 EJ) far ahead of natural gas reforming (up to 2.2 EJ). Allowing offshore interconnectors (e.g. meshed offshore grid between the Netherlands Germany and the United Kingdom) permits to integrate larger amounts of offshore wind (122 GW to 191 GW of additional capacity compared to reference scenarios) while substantially increasing the cross-border interconnection capacities (up to 120 GW). All the biomass available is used in the scenarios across multiple end uses including biofuel production (up to 3.5 EJ) high temperature heat (up to 2.5 EJ) feedstock for industry (up to 2 EJ) residential heat (up to 600 PJ) and power generation (up to 900 PJ). In general most of the results justify the development of multinational energy system models in which the spatial coverage lays between national and continental models.

The independent cross-party report highlights a ‘sensible middle ground’ in the renewables debate and calls for more effort in building cross-party consensus. It finds that the UK has only just begun to harness low carbon renewable resources bigger than North Sea oil and gas and argues that the Government could do more to narrow the scope of debate about the technology mix beyond 2020. It argues that it should work with industry and academia first to establish ‘low regrets’ levels of technology deployment and second to ensure that policies are in place to incentivise investments such as supply chain investment needed to deliver these low regrets actions.

This approach would help provide the longer term clarity that could secure supply chain investments giving the UK a head-start in the global race. The report finds that these investments could be missed delayed or more expensive if there is insufficient confidence about long term demand for key technologies such as offshore wind. Work by Government to help incentivise these investments would increase the likelihood that technology cost reductions are achieved and help mitigate against high costs if new nuclear or carbon capture and storage development fail or are delayed.

On affordability the report finds that there are ‘hidden’ benefits that the UK could see from investing more in renewables through electricity bills between now and 2020. These include: avoiding bill increases driven by fossil fuels; making electricity bills more predictable; and providing an economic boost. The extra money paid to support renewables and other low carbon generation such as nuclear power could be more than offset by energy efficiency savings although Government needs to do more to show how these savings will arise.

On sustainability the report tackles myths about the carbon emitted in manufacturing renewable technologies or in backing up varying technologies such as wind solar wave and tidal. It finds that even when considering these factors renewables are still amongst the most low carbon options. The report also looks at the sustainability of electricity from biomass. Bioenergy overall could provide up to ten per cent of energy and reduce the cost of cutting carbon by £44 billion per year in 2050. The Government’s new biomass policies are a pragmatic response to concerns about the sustainability of biomass power which balances protecting the environment building public confidence and enabling the sector to grow.

On security of supply the inquiry argues that debate should focus on the whole electricity system and that individual technologies should be considered in the context of how they add to or reduce system risks. Considered like this renewables reduce some risks such as fuel supply risks which caused concern last winter and add to others such as system balancing risks. System balancing risks from varying renewables (wind solar wave and tidal technologies) are manageable using a number of existing and developing technologies.

The independent report chaired by former Energy Minister Charles Hendry MP and Shadow Energy Minister Baroness Worthington was compiled between May and September 2013 and was sponsored by Siemens and DONG Energy. It is part of a year-long independent and cross party inquiry into the UK power sector the Future Electricity Series sponsored by the Institution of Gas Engineers and Managers.

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Hydrogen mobility is one option for reducing local emissions avoiding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and moving away from a mainly oil-based transport system towards a diversification of energy sources. As hydrogen production can be based on a broad variety of technologies already existing or under development a comprehensive assessment of the different supply chains is necessary regarding not only costs but also diverse environmental impacts. Therefore in this paper a broad variety of hydrogen production technologies using different energy sources renewable and fossil are exemplarily assessed with the help of a Life Cycle Assessment and a cost assessment for Germany. As environmental impacts along with the impact category Climate change five more advanced impact categories are assessed. The results show that from an environmental point of view PEM and alkaline electrolysis are characterized by the lowest results in five out of six impact categories. Supply chains using fossil fuels in contrast have the lowest supply costs; this is true e.g. for steam methane reforming. Solar powered hydrogen production shows low impacts during hydrogen production but high impacts for transport and distribution to Germany. There is no single supply chain that is the most promising for every aspect assessed here. Either costs have to be lowered further or supply chains with selected environmental impacts have to be modified.

Hydrogen production using renewable power is becoming an essential pillar for future sustainable energy sector development worldwide. The Sultanate of Oman is presently integrating renewable power generations with a large share of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. The possibility of using the solar potential of the Sultanate can increase energy security and contribute to the development of the sustainable energy sector not only for the country but also for the international community. This study presents the hydrogen production potential using solar resources available in the Sultanate. About 15 locations throughout the Sultanate are considered to assess the hydrogen production opportunity using a solar PV system. A rank of merit order of the locations for producing hydrogen is identified. It reveals that Thumrait and Marmul are the most suitable locations whereas Sur is the least qualified. This study also assesses the economic feasibility of hydrogen production which shows that the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) in the most suitable site Thumrait is 6.31 USD/kg. The LCOH in the least convenient location Sur is 7.32 USD/kg. Finally a sensitivity analysis is performed to reveal the most significant influential factor affecting the future’s green hydrogen production cost. The findings indicate that green hydrogen production using solar power in the Sultanate is promising and the LCOH is consistent with other studies worldwide.

Energy system integration enables raising operational synergies by coupling the energy infrastructures for electricity methane and hydrogen. However this coupling reinforces the infrastructure interdependencies increasing the need for integrated modeling of these infrastructures. To analyze the cost-efficient sustainable and secure dispatch of applied large-scale energy infrastructures an extensive and non-linear optimization problem needs to be solved. This paper introduces a nested decomposition approach with three stages. The method enables an integrated and full-year consideration of large-scale multi-energy systems in hourly resolution taking into account physical laws of power flows in electricity and gas transmission systems as boundary conditions. For this purpose a zooming technique successively reduces the temporal scope while first increasing the spatial and last the technical resolution. A use case proves the applicability of the presented approach to large-scale energy systems. To this end the model is applied to an integrated European energy system model with a detailed focus on Germany in a challenging transport situation. The use case demonstrates the temporal regional and cross-sectoral interdependencies in the dispatch of integrated energy infrastructures and thus the benefits of the introduced approach.

Electrification of the heat network in buildings together with a rise in popularity of Electric Vehicles (EVs) will result in a need to make investments in the electrical energy infrastructure in order to prevent congestion. This paper discusses the influence of hydrogen in future smart microgrids on these investments. Moreover smart control strategies i.e. EV management and demand response programs are used in this paper to lower the peak of electrical energy demand resulting in the reduction of these investments. Performances of microgrid with different levels of hydrogen penetration are discussed. It is shown that an increase in the level of hydrogen in the microgrid will reduce the electric grid investments costs but is not economically more beneficial than using ‘green’ gas due to the higher total economic costs.