Hydrogen fuel gas for NTS compressors

We have 24 compressor stations and 70 individual compressor units on the National Transmission System (NTS) which are critical assets used for moving gas across the network to where it needs to be, depending on use and demand. Most of these compressor units are powered by gas turbines which burn natural gas from the network, producing carbon emissions.

We started a project in September 2021 looking at the opportunity for fuelling our existing gas turbines with hydrogen blends and 100% hydrogen, including the impacts on safety, environmental, technical, operational, and economic factors.

The project also looked to establish an innovative green hydrogen production, storage, and supply facility to fuel gas turbines with varying hydrogen and methane blends.

We focused on identifying the capability of the SGT-A20 gas turbines – the most common unit on the network – and all associated equipment, with a 25% blend of hydrogen, as well as 100% hydrogen.

We looked at the different operational considerations for our compressor sites, including the safety, environmental, and cost implications of using hydrogen as a fuel gas.

Alongside this, we explored electrolyser capability and any technical limitations of producing hydrogen, including the reliability of renewable energy sources.

The outputs from these work packages were used to build an early-stage business case and provide guidance on the future work required to use hydrogen as a fuel gas for compressor turbines. This project also determined that it is theoretically feasible to repurpose existing gas turbines, which is being proven in our SIF HyNTS Compression project.