NGN and Arup kick off strategic optioneering of East Coast Hydrogen project, with Optioneer™
The team at Arup and NGN deployed Optioneer for strategic optioneering and route optioneering.
of hydrogen pipeline routes developed
to define key scenarios
customer locations considered
Introduction
East Coast Hydrogen (ECH) is a collaborative endeavour involving gas network operators Northern Gas Network (NGN), Cadent and National Gas Transmission. The initiative strives to link hydrogen production to the gas network situated in the North East of England. This effort aligns with the government's objectives to achieve its 2050 net-zero goals. Initially, these pipelines will establish connections between the industrial clusters in Humberside and Teesside. And subsequently, the project will be expanded and spread across the broader region.
Leading engineering firm, Arup, was contracted to support NGN to undertake a pre-FEED study. The team at Arup and NGN deployed Optioneer for strategic optioneering and route optioneering to identify corridors and initial routes that would maximise the number of potential hydrogen users, producers and storage owners within the network.
The challenges of developing hydrogen networks, before using Optioneer
Strategic optioneering of pipeline networks of this scale typically requires developing a considerable amount of scenarios and iterating on them over the course of months, if not years.
With hydrogen networks, additional concerns such as predicting future hydrogen demand, regulatory changes causing challenging market dynamics, shifting industrial needs and accounting for public safety, come into play.
Whilst developing these networks, Gas Distribution Network Operators also have to ensure that their customers retain a secure gas supply and that the current gas network is operated safely whilst maximising the repurposing of the existing network.
General mitigation of risks, addressing environmental and social impacts are all essential aspects of the optioneering process.The network spans across a large and highly constrained area. Often, customers are located in dense urban or industrial environments with limited available space, making it difficult to find suitable routes for new infrastructure without disrupting existing buildings, roads, utilities and public spaces. These environments are also densely populated, which means that any construction activities can impact a large number of residents, businesses and commuters.
NGN and Arup acknowledged that Optioneer had the potential to facilitate a more thorough and swift collaborative evaluation of diverse network alternatives.
Given the extensive range of network possibilities and substantial uncertainty around the possibility of repurposing the existing distribution network, Optioneer would enable NGN and Arup to accomplish the bulk of the strategic optioneering within days, in stark contrast to the months required by conventional approaches.
Optioneer has greatly accelerated our routing process, which has been a significant advantage for the East Coast Hydrogen project. In the past, it would take us an entire month to develop just one route, but with Optioneer, we can generate multiple routes and alternatives within a matter of days. The convenience of having all the work consolidated on one platform has been incredibly valuable to us.
The project area was modelled to account for public safety, environmental sensitivities and economic and technical factors. For each potential customer connection, a range of corridors were developed.
The corridors were screened to identify the least impactful option. These were compiled into scenarios which underwent a cost-benefit analysis. Each scenario explored maximising the capacity of hydrogen distribution, minimising the cost and construction effort required, whilst repurposing the existing gas distribution network where possible.
The result
Optioneer considered a total of 800 km of hydrogen pipeline routes. 100+ customer locations were analysed and the project team was able to compare 225 route options. Over 5 key customer clusters, 45 scenarios were defined in 8 weeks' time.
Optioneer enabled NGN and Arup to gain greater certainty on the feasibility of the East Coast Hydrogen project and the viability of network scenarios and further route options in a complex urban environment. This was accomplished in a fraction of the time compared to conventional manual methods.
The team explained that without Optioneer they would not have been able to assess routes in such detail and evaluate them against each other to develop the most effective network. Optioneer has added credibility to the justifications of the chosen network and allowed for more accurate costings to be developed at an earlier project stage.
of hydrogen pipeline routes developed
to define key scenarios
customer locations considered
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