Ofgem has opened the door to allowing more ‘green’ gas to be injected into the gas network.
The change would facilitate more use of so-called ‘biogas’, methane which is produced in anaerobic digesters from organic material such as grass or sewage. The resulting methane, which is chemically identical to the methane in fossil fuel such as natural gas, can be injected into the gas network if it meets appropriate standards. But up to now injection had to take place on pipework owned by one of the major gas distribution networks (GDNs). That might mean an AD producer had to send gas by tanker to an injection point or build new pipework, if the nearest connection to a GDN was at a distance.
Changes to industry rules (the so-called Uniform Network Code, or UNC) will now mean the green gas can be injected in network owned by independent gas network owners (dubbed iGDNs) who often own and operator ‘last mile’ pipes in housing developments or other sites.
The change could make it cheaper to inject green gas into the network and could ultimately facilitate local networks running on green gas where there are nearby resources to produce it.
National Grid has previously estimated that biogas could total over 5000M3 annually, meeting 15% of GB domestic demand and 5% of the UK total demand. That would include agricultural and sewage waste, green crops and other sources. If the total of such resources were diverted to biogas and boosted by crops grown for the purpose, it could provide three times that amount.