The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has begun pre-procurement market engagement, ending on 31 January, for a two-year contract, up to £5 million in value, to support assessments of the feasibility of converting the GB building stock to hydrogen. It aims to move to an invitation to tender in April and award the contract in June.
The aim of contract is to support assessments of the feasibility of converting the GB building stock to hydrogen. The supplier will be expected to produce analysis of survey results to support assessments within BEIS on the cost and other impacts of converting different types of buildings.
The initial focus is expected to be on domestic and small commercial properties, with the potential to extend this scope to wider types of non-domestic properties. Suppliers will survey representative samples of the building stock that can be used to draw conclusions about the stock across Great Britain as a whole. That would include a variety of locations (different geographies and urban/rural settings), property types (e.g. terraced, semi-detached and detached) and consumers to ensure the data collected reflects the diversity of the building stock and users found across Great Britain. BEIS will share information as part of the survey design but needs delivery partner with technical competence to assess certain features of the gas installation and fabric of buildings..
BEIS says the UK’s Heat and Buildings Strategy in October 2021 included establishing a default pathway to decarbonise heating through electrification but also identified that low-carbon hydrogen could have the potential to be a key option for decarbonising heat in buildings. “However, unlike other technologies such as heat pumps and heat networks, 100% hydrogen for heat is not yet an established option.” This programme of work aims to produce the evidence required to enable strategic decisions to be made in 2026 on the role of hydrogen in decarbonising heat.
The supplier, or consortium of suppliers, will design and conduct surveys to gather such evidence, collate and analyse the results, and provide findings to BEIS.
The market engagement period ends on 31 January.
More details here