Appraising different types of hydrogen appliance

On the 14th December 2016, Baroness Neville Rolfe gave a speech at the Policy Exchange's Heat Summit event: How Can We Decarbonise Heating?

Converting the gas grid to hydrogen is one potential option for decarbonising part of the UK's heat demand.

BEIS wishes to build on existing evidence relating to hydrogen appliances by commissioning a project to appraise the following three variations in approach to providing hydrogen appliances in UK homes, should there be a future transition from natural gas to hydrogen: a) Appliances fully replaced: Natural gas appliances removed and hydrogen appliances installed in their place. b) Appliances adapted: Natural gas appliances have components that can be easily switched-out to allow conversion to hydrogen. c) Dual fuel appliances: Appliances capable of burning both natural gas and hydrogen.

For the purposes of this project, "appliances" will be defined as: domestic gas boilers, ovens, hobs and fires.

The study should improve the evidence base on the cost, performance and practicality of each approach and the trade-offs between them.

Additional information: To provide prospective suppliers with the opportunity to gain more detail on the project and identify potential partners BEIS are holding a supplier day at BEIS Conference Centre, 1 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0ET on Friday 21 April between 10.00-16.00. The morning session will involve a group session with all interested parties, where we will provide a more detailed description of the project and we expect to discuss different approaches to the work and the main areas for investigation. The afternoon session will be divided up into a series of pre-booked one-to-one sessions between BEIS officials and potential contractors, to give organisations the opportunity to ask more detailed questions. Please note that due to the potential high number of attendees, organisations interested in attending are limited to one attendee only for the morning session. Organisations that are interested in applying for this contract and have further questions contact Jenna Owen at BEIS (contact info above).