A consortium of companies will deliver the first phase of a power-to-x project as part of the UK Government’s Longer Duration Energy Storage (LODES) competition.
B9 Energy, Mutual Energy, Islandmagee Energy and the Net Zero Technology Centre have secured just under £1m for a 12-month power-to-x project, located in Ballylumford, Northern Ireland.
Phase one of the project will see the delivery of a front-end engineering design (FEED) to demonstrate the concept of a longer duration (four hours or more) energy storage system which can be deployed at scale.
It will involve storing green hydrogen from renewable energy sources in underground salt caverns for later use as carbon free fuel in both the transport and power generation sectors.
The Ballylumford power-to-x project seeks to create a full-cycle hydrogen economy, from production, storage and distribution to usage at the site.
The FEED study will establish a set of requirements to improve the security and reliability of the UK and Ireland’s power system through curtailment management and the provision of a range of system services from net zero compliant technologies.
The technologies include electrolysers, used to produce green hydrogen from surplus renewable generation, and a hydrogen-fired gas turbine.
The Ballylumford site combines connection to the gas and electricity transmission networks, interconnection with Scotland through the SNIP and Moyle pipeline and cables respectively.
The project will allow the generation of real-world data and practical experience in developing a high pressure 100% hydrogen network and building an understanding of the associated legislative and regulatory framework surrounding such networks.