EMStor (East Midlands Storage) project consortium has received funding through the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK, following a successful bid that builds on the work delivered during the SIF Discovery Phase.

The funding will be used to develop the concept for storage of hydrogen in repurposed onshore hydrocarbon fields in the East Midlands.  There are existing pipeline plans from Cadent to connect low carbon hydrogen production sites, such as Uniper’s Ratcliffe-On-Soar, to more than 10TWh of hydrogen demand in the East Midlands. Development of intermediate to large-scale storage of hydrogen in the region will enable the pipeline network to develop further and faster and increase the resilience of the network.

The work packages undertaken in the Alpha Phase will investigate technical feasibility and develop further evidence to enable an eventual geological storage demonstrator project. 

In moving from Discovery Phase to Alpha Phase, the EMStor consortium has grown; the original partners included Cadent, British Geological Survey (BGS), Edinburgh University, and Star Energy Group and the consortium now includes Centrica Storage, Uniper and National Gas. During the Discovery Phase, a range of different geological storage options in the East Midlands were assessed, and storage in repurposed onshore hydrocarbon fields was identified as the leading technology.  

The Discovery Phase showed that that hydrogen storage is a vital component to any future hydrogen system in the East Midlands, ensuring energy security, resilience and affordability. The development of hydrogen storage in repurposed hydrocarbon fields must be done in tandem with the development of hydrogen production, such as at Uniper’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, and Cadent’s hydrogen network. Uniper plan to create electrolytic hydrogen using renewable energy and water. Using storage alongside electrolytic hydrogen production allows the gas to be produced when renewable energy is abundant, stored, and then used by industry and power generators later, at other times when hydrogen production is limited by low availability of renewables. Using hydrogen as an energy storage vector therefore has a vital system balancing role to play.

Hydrogen storage will ensure that hydrogen can play a central role in delivering a resilient supply of low carbon and affordable energy to industrial and power sites, whilst supporting the East Midlands’ future economic growth and ability to meet net zero targets.  

After many years of production, the East Midlands has a number of depleted oil reservoirs in close proximity to the proposed hydrogen pipeline network that could potentially be used to store hydrogen, subject to technical feasibility and further development work to allow a successful demonstration project being undertaken. Importantly, because of this long history, the hydrocarbon fields are well defined and located to merit further investigation to support the development of future hydrogen production and transportation infrastructure in the East Midlands. 

The EMStor Alpha Phase further develops the depth of knowledge initiated in the Discovery Phase by advancing understanding into the public’s perception of hydrogen storage, technical aspects of underground hydrogen storage such as geological feasibility and well integrity assessment, the approach to regulatory, permitting and planning for any subsequent demonstration and finally decisions on next steps and future phasing. In the spring, a dissemination event will be held to detail findings and outline next steps. 

Sally Brewis, Head of Regional Development at Cadent said:
“We’re delighted to have secured this funding so that we can continue to break new ground in onshore hydrogen storage. The ultimate aim is to increase the technology readiness level of storage of hydrogen in disused hydrocarbon fields by demonstrating that it works, by 2030. Local geological stores of hydrogen in the East Midlands will allow a much more rapid deployment of our hydrogen pipeline network and mean that more customers can switch away from natural gas and decarbonise more quickly.”

Rik Evans, Commercial Director, Star Energy Group said:
“Star is an operator of more than twenty energy production sites across the East Midlands, some of which have been providing jobs and incomes to communities for almost seventy years.  We are proud to be working with our partners in EMStor on this exciting scheme which offers a secure future; manifesting all that is possible with the UK’s Energy Transition.
Based on the work carried out in Discovery Phase we have estimated that converting the fields operated by Star might deliver 50TWh of storage capacity, more than 50% of the estimated total requirement.”

Chris McClane, Energy Transition Interface Manager, Centrica Energy Storage said:  
“Centrica is the UK’s leading vertically integrated energy business, and we are pleased to be working with our partners in EMStor to develop geological energy storage in the East Midlands. Centrica plan to repurpose the Rough gas field in the Southern North Sea as the UK’s largest hydrogen store, demonstrating our belief in the value of long duration energy storage to the UK. EMStor, like our Rough storage project, is vital to develop the clean energy storage infrastructure required to enable industrial decarbonisation and deliver the hydrogen economy of the future.”