Chief executive’s view: Chris Train, chief executive, Cadent

"We are fortunate to have investors who have given us their financial backing and their unparalleled expertise"

In April, Cadent will celebrate its first birthday and what a year it has been – both for us and for the energy industry as a whole.

In just under 12 months, we have left our former parent company, National Grid, to become a new, independent organisation under a new board. We have successfully juggled all that a major transition entails while delivering the day job, keeping 11 million homes and businesses safe and warm.

There have been challenges. In March, “the beast from the east” brought record numbers of calls to the National Gas Emergency Service, which Cadent operates on behalf of all the gas distribution networks. I am proud to say our people rose to the occasion magnificently.

2017 was, to quote the ancient Chinese proverb, an “interesting time” to launch a new gas distribution company as the energy networks found themselves under scrutiny like never before.

Embrace the challenges

Launching the RIIO2 Framework consultation last week, Ofgem made it clear it will expect much more from us in the next price control period. Underpinning all of this is the challenge to meet 2050 decarbonisation targets.

At Cadent we are well-positioned to embrace these challenges.

We are fortunate to have investors who have given us their financial backing and their unparalleled expertise. They are working with us to make our business a success, but most importantly to provide the safest, most efficient and value-for-money for service for our customers.

As a stand-alone gas distribution business we are able to focus on one goal – improving outcomes for customers. And customers are already telling us that they are seeing improvement.

Finally, we are combining the mindset of a new organisation with 200 years of experience in the gas industry. This is vital as we tackle what former energy minister Sir Ed Davey recently described as the UK’s biggest energy challenge – the decarbonisation of heat.

Repurposing the gas network for low and zero carbon gases to heat our homes and industry can help deliver the 2050 decarbonisation targets affordably and sustainably and I am proud that Cadent is in the vanguard of research in this area.

HyDeploy, led by Cadent, in partnership with Northern Gas Neworks, Keele University and a consortium of technical experts, aims to be the first project to inject hydrogen into a UK gas network.

HyDeploy proposes to blend up to 20 per cent hydrogen, by volume, with methane in Keele University’s gas network. If this were to be replicated across the country, it would save 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year, the equivalent of taking 2.5 million cars off the road.

Green gas

Meanwhile, our ambitious project in the North West is exploring supplying blended hydrogen and methane to households and 100 per cent hydrogen to industrial customers in the Liverpool and Manchester areas.

We have also invested £8.6 million in a commercial demonstration plant in Swindon which uses revolutionary gasification technology to convert black bag domestic waste into BioSynthetic Natural Gas. The plant is due to start operating this year and could revolutionise both energy and waste management.

Not only could these “green” gases decarbonise heat but they could also play a major role in decarbonising transport and cleaner air.

In 2016 we partnered with CNG Fuels to launch the UK’s first gas filling station connected to a high pressure pipeline. Dispensing 100 per cent biomethane CNG to HGVs, research showed an 84 per cent drop in carbon dioxide emissions compared with equivalent diesel vehicles. Research has also shown that biomethane CNG has up to 99 per cent reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions.

That Chinese proverb may be neither ancient nor Chinese but Robert Kennedy used it in a speech in 1966 that still rings true today.

He said: “Like it or not we live in interesting times. They are times of danger and uncertainty; but they are also more open to the creative energy of men than any other time in history.”

At Cadent we have the “creative energy” of men – and women – to seize the opportunities and deliver an affordable, sustainable decarbonised future for all our customers.

Chris Train will be speaking at Utility Week Energy Summit in Westminster in June