So much more than hot air

Heidi Genoni, programme lead for Arup+’s Hy4Heat programme, reveals what it has taken to demonstrate hydrogen is a viable alternative to natural gas as a domestic fuel.

As the UK strives to meet its 2050 target of net zero carbon emissions, finding alternatives to natural gas as a domestic fuel is high on the list of priorities. The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is looking at ways of decarbonising heat, and one option is replacing methane with hydrogen. Launched in late 2017, the four‑year, £25m Hy4Heat programme aimed to provide the technical, performance, usability and safety evidence to de‑risk the use of hydrogen in homes and lay the groundwork for a community trial.

Leading the programme was Arup+, a team that brought together Arup’s programme management expertise with other organisations specialising in energy and hydrogen. Overcoming widespread scepticism in the gas industry about the technical and commercial viability of hydrogen technology, the evidence‑based, stakeholder‑led approach resulted in a shift in industry mindset and established the foundations for a hydrogen community trial. For their efforts, the team were awarded Programme of the Year at the 2021 APM Awards.

Hy4Heat has all the key characteristics of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) programme. It was volatile in terms of the flexibility needed to quickly adapt to changes. Being a research and innovation programme, there was a high level of uncertainty regarding the final outcomes, particularly about the timescales of appliance development.

The overlapping nature of the work packages was complex and there were large numbers of different stakeholder organisations involved. The success of the programme lay in the ability of the team to navigate these complexities and achieve results that last beyond the programme’s lifetime.

Robust coordination

The programme was set up following the Managing Successful Programmes principles, including identifying programme tranches with associated benefit realisation; and formal gate reviews to assess the continued viability of the programme’s business case.

Arup brings programme management expertise and developed Arup+ in partnership with leaders in the hydrogen field: Kiwa Gastec, Progressive Energy, Embers and Yo Energy, which provided a bridge between government (BEIS) and industry. It defined the scope of each work package, identified the most suitable contract and procurement process, managed the delivery of each work package and worked on preparations and plans for a potential community trial. Arup+ was tasked with responding to the key challenge of ensuring robust coordination between the government and industry stakeholders. Arup+, on behalf of BEIS, procured and appointed contractors to deliver the programme’s other work packages (numbers 2–10) and they are all part of the wider delivery team (see below).

Hy4Heat programme work packages (WPs)

WP1 Programme management (Arup+)

WP2 Hydrogen quality standard

WP3 Appliance certification

WP4 Domestic appliances

WP5 Commercial appliances

WP6 Industrial appliances

WP7 Safety assessment

WP8 Demonstration facilities

WP9 Community trial preparation

WP10 Developing hydrogen gas meters

One of the main reasons for the success of the Hy4Heat programme was the nature of the team: diverse, highly skilled and experienced across a wide range of technical and non‑technical areas. With such a varied team, there were initial challenges, some tension and uncertainty. Underpinning the transition from ‘storming’ to a ‘performing’ phase was an early investment in an off‑site experiential team‑building session structured by Arup’s occupational psychologists to embed a collaborative approach and unite the team around the shared aims of the programme. This resulted in the co‑location of the core team in the Arup office (pre‑pandemic), which helped to build a sense of belonging and learning from each other (including BEIS). Success was also celebrated, with regular and ad hoc social events following key milestone delivery; and importantly, communication channels were active and open, including regular meetings, shared digital platforms and ‘health check‑ins’.

Changes and challenges

In early 2018, Arup+ staged an initial event to introduce the programme to key industry players, including gas distribution network leads, appliance and fuel cell manufacturers, trade associations and academics. Getting a guest list together was challenging; the hydrogen naysayers were in plentiful supply. Drawing from Arup+ contacts and ‘warm‑up’ calls, a good turnout of 120 was achieved. But the message from attendees was that hydrogen would be near‑impossible to introduce, and that the programme timescale for appliance development was not nearly sufficient, as prototype appliances took nearer five years, not two to three, to develop. This presented a challenge, but also an opportunity for Arup+ to demonstrate otherwise.

Time was of the essence. Arup+ needed to appoint consortia to develop appliances, and invitations to tender (ITTs) needed to be issued. The team embarked on a comprehensive stakeholder engagement programme, building its industry contacts with the help of trade organisations, holding webinars, delivering presentations at conferences and conducting in‑person pre‑procurement engagement sessions with manufacturers. Extensive work went into contacting people in hundreds of organisations, explaining Hy4Heat and encouraging them to form consortia.

The pre‑procurement engagement sessions were vital in helping to mobilise consortia of manufacturers and supply chains; they included Q&As and facilitated roundtable discussions. They were also a crucial source of guidance for Arup+ as it put together the ITTs. The ITTs would be make‑or‑break for the programme: they had to make the two‑year product development timescale feel as realistic and achievable as possible to encourage consortia to come forward and participate. Simply presenting them with a two to three‑year deadline would not work.

Arup+ broke down the demanding timelines and asked consortia to demonstrate key components at regular intervals, making the ‘impossible’ milestones now seem achievable, and dramatically accelerating the innovation cycle to develop prototype products.

On Arup+’s advice, BEIS adopted contracts and a procurement process that promised work package consortia that they would be able to retain most of the intellectual property rights attached to the new products. This provided a welcome incentive to the manufacturers and consortia to meet the programme’s timescales. Arup+ was able to provide a bridge between government and industry, defining the scope and brief of each work package, identifying the most suitable contracts and procurement process, and managing the delivery.

The programme was seeking to encourage a major change of mindset within the gas industry. Ironically, this could only be achieved if businesses judged the likely impact of taking part to be minimal. For that reason, and to make the new hydrogen appliances easy to install for consumers, Arup+ made it a core condition that manufacturers develop only ‘like‑for‑like’ products – boilers that fit the same cupboard‑type spaces as current gas boilers, for example.

A final crucial element of the ITT to boiler manufacturers was the new concept of ‘hydrogen‑ready’ appliances. Among Hy4Heat’s policy team, the preference was for the new boilers be ‘dual‑fuel’ (ie able to operate on methane or hydrogen). The technical specialists, though, wanted hydrogen‑only boilers to be developed. The disagreement became a stumbling block, until the concept of the ‘hydrogen‑ready’ boiler was put forward: an appliance that runs on natural gas until the supply of hydrogen becomes available, at which point a small number of components are replaced, converting the boiler to the new fuel. It was uncertain how this compromise concept would be met by industry, but the boiler manufacturers responded positively.

Covid‑19 also had an impact, and a specific risk register was set up in March 2020. This comprised a tracker for each individual manufacturer detailing how Covid‑19 was impacting on them and the specific delays they were impacted by. This resulted in a more granular level of detail to allow Arup+ to see how we could support them and assess the impact on our own risk.

Transforming the possibilities

In just a few years, the Hy4Heat programme has instigated a transformation in the mindset of industry towards a hydrogen future, and put the UK at the forefront of international efforts to develop safe, high‑performance hydrogen technology for heating. By adopting an evidence‑based, stakeholder‑led approach, Arup+ mobilised manufacturers, supply chains and academic partners to collaborate on developing the boilers, meters, cookers, heaters and other appliances that will be central to a community‑level trial – the first step towards large‑scale conversion.

In 2017, that trial was no more than an idea; today it is a priority for the UK government. With a relatively small budget, the programme has unlocked hydrogen innovation across the gas industry. Consortia were encouraged to develop fully working prototypes within the timeframe and lay the foundations of an entirely new customer‑focused hydrogen appliance market. In a short time, the programme has moved UK hydrogen heating technology from a Technology Readiness Level of 1–2 to 8–9 on the scale: ie from a position of academic knowledge and understanding to one of commercial market‑readiness. The programme encouraged the development of products that are like‑for‑like, ‘hydrogen‑ready’ replacements of existing appliances, maximising their convenience and acceptability for customers.

Unforeseen bonuses have arisen too, in that emissions of nitrous oxide (another greenhouse gas) from burning hydrogen are around 50 per cent lower than from methane. This has helped stimulate new scientific research to investigate and explain these findings. Hy4Heat has managed to create a reputation as a flagship programme in the field of hydrogen and has created a ‘brand identity’ attracting interest from industry, academia and public bodies, and raising awareness and shaping the public perception of hydrogen. The flexible and adaptable approach adopted allowed the programme, among other things, to stretch the available budget and time left to achieve more, for example in terms of commercial appliances development, enhancing appliances installation standards (IGEM and BSI), and adding scope to the safety assessment work package to provide more comprehensive results.

The Hy4Heat blueprint for governance, programme management and delivery has already been successfully adopted for other Arup programmes, but also by BEIS. Examples already replicated by BEIS on other programmes include the innovative approach to procurement based on competition, using a range of methods and tools to engage and communicate with a variety stakeholders; and programme administration good practice with comprehensive document management. Not all of these positive outcomes were envisaged at the start of the programme; some of them are the product of the organic evolution and the success of Hy4Heat, but they are completely consistent with the innovative nature of this programme.

A truly meaningful project

From a team member’s perspective, Hy4Heat has significantly contributed to developing skills and experience both in programme management and in the hydrogen field. This is particularly true for graduate members of the team, who had the opportunity to be at the forefront of an innovative and complex programme and acquire skills and experience that will be extremely useful in their future career.

As project professionals, it is important that we maximise the potential of our talented teams and that we always encourage and challenge alternative thinking and different ways of approaching problems. I truly believe that it is in those spaces – in embracing the differences between disciplines – that the innovation comes out.

 

THIS ARTICLE IS BROUGHT TO YOU FROM THE spring 2022 ISSUE OF PROJECT JOURNAL, WHICH IS FREE FOR APM MEMBERS.