Hydrogen storage project awarded £500,000 in Ofgem funding

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A PROOF-OF-CONCEPT study into geological hydrogen storage for flexible power generation has been selected by UK energy regulator Ofgem in its latest allocation of funding. 

The project, led by Northern Gas Networks (NGN), secured £500,000 (US$668,000) to further develop plans to build an underground storage site near the retired Knapton power station in North Yorkshire following an initial feasibility study last year. 

The Knapton site was acquired by British energy giant Centrica in 2023, four years after the gas-fired power station stopped generating electricity, with plans to transform the site into a “green energy hub” to support decarbonisation of adjacent peaking power stations – plants that generate electricity only in times of high demand. 

Alongside the British Geological Survey, Ceraphi Energy, National Gas, the University of Edinburgh and Wales & West Utilities, NGN plans to store hydrogen that can be deployed flexibly to fuel the nearby power stations. The local Vale of Pickering region hosts a “fantastic diversity of geology” for hydrogen storage, NGN said, including depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, porous rock aquifers and salt deposits. 

Chris McClane, energy transition interface manager at Centrica, said last year that without “dedicated hydrogen storage”, Knapton’s ability to support seasonal grid balance and flexible power dispatch “will be fundamentally constrained”. 

The latest funding for Knapton, allocated in the fifth round of Ofgem’s “strategic innovation fund” (SIF), follows a feasibility study supported by around £150,000 in the latest SIF round last September. Ofgem awarded a total of £22.9m across 18 projects across the energy network, including a feasibility assessment for shared ownership of electricity generators and a project to develop a map of quantum cyber-attack threats to the grid. Just under £150,000 was awarded to Southern Gas Networks for a feasibility study into synthetic methane production using oceanic CO2.

Marzia Zafar, deputy director for digitalisation and innovation at Ofgem, said the latest funding marked “an important step in accelerating the pace of innovation needed to transform our energy system”, and that “it is essential that we continue to back bold, scalable solutions that can deliver tangible benefits for consumers and support the transition to net zero”.