OPINION | The now-scrapped Redcar hydrogen heating trial was a failure of project management and government oversight
And how can any future decisions be made on H2 heating when the only remaining UK trial in Fife is not even testing the use of hydrogen in the gas network? asks Tom Baxter
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I have followed the Redcar story with keen interest and, unless I’ve missed something, the threat to the project from lack of a hydrogen supply has never been mentioned.
I have worked on numerous engineering projects and a key project management document is a risks register. This register identifies threats to the project outcome and how that risk will be mitigated.
The register would also identify intervention strategies in the event of project enablers — for example, hydrogen supply — being at risk.
For a project like Redcar hydrogen, basic project management procedures should have identified security of required feedstock as a prime risk. Indeed, the whole project hinges on the supply of hydrogen.
Yet at the eleventh hour, the Northern Gas Networks project is pulled because there will not be adequate low-carbon hydrogen available to supply the Redcar Hydrogen Community.
There has clearly been a failure of project management here.
For the Redcar project to get this far using taxpayers’ money and putting the local residents under significant stress needs further investigation.
Was the project audited? If so, what was the outcome? If not, then there is a UK government failing in its responsibilities relating to the public purse.
I’m also left wondering if low-carbon hydrogen had been available, would the project have been given the green light? Was the UK government satisfied that there was sufficient local support and there was a robust project safety case?
Compared to Redcar and Whitby, the Fife project has largely gone under the radar, but is moving forward with support from the local authority and the Scottish government.
Unlike at Redcar and Whitby, there is no significant resident concern, from what I can ascertain.
The trial area is in one of Scotland’s most deprived areas. I wonder how much the £1,000 ($1,278) that each bill payer will receive has influenced the resident sign-up level?
A key part of the Redcar and Whitby trials was to use hydrogen in the existing local gas network pipes. That would allow the trials to assess how the existing network would handle any changeover.
This is not the case with H100 as a new hydrogen network is being installed. Clearly that means the existing network’s suitability for hydrogen will not be tested.
Even if H100 is deemed a success, how can a decision be made about a larger town-sized trial when testing the existing network has not been part of the trial?