Let’s be pragmatic – not dogmatic – about the future of gas

Last month the Public Accounts Committee called for work to begin urgently on a plan to decommission the gas network. Writing for Utility Week, Cadent’s chief regulation and strategy officer Tony Ballance argues that this is a potentially damaging distraction and calls for a grown-up debate on the future of gas.

The important task of delivering net zero in the energy sector is often conflated with a discussion on doing away with the gas network – born out of a dogmatic position about electrification being the singular answer to net zero.

We see a twisted logic presented about it being easier to deliver net zero without a gas network. This is baffling. So, it is time to stand back and consider the role the gas network already plays and will need to continue to play.

The gas distribution networks transport more than twice as much energy to consumers as the entire electricity distribution network does today.

And it is also highly interconnected – with a single pipe simultaneously supplying homes, local businesses, public buildings and industrial sites.

So, regardless of whether we are aiming to decarbonise the current power sector to Labour’s 2030 schedule or the Conservatives’ 2035 one – the size of the challenge facing us after this milestone is enormous.

The reality is that the pathway we will follow in delivering net zero remains extremely uncertain – and we need to keep open the range of options to get us there. Yet regardless of the pathway we follow, we will still need a gas network in the 2040s. Even in a scenario where most energy is electrified, an estimated 4.5m customers on our networks will still be using methane at the start of the 2040s.

And we need to be clear that, if we have that many customers still relying on gas, we cannot begin to contemplate decommissioning. There is a myth that a reduction in customer numbers means we can also reduce the gas network. This is untrue – and even with a small number of customers, the network will need to remain.

So, lets recognise that we are going to need a gas network for some time and look to ways in which the gas networks can play a key role.

There is an emerging case to adopt hybrid heating systems, which countries like the Netherlands are doing. These will help boost the uptake of electrified solutions, whilst reducing the scale and cost of upgrading the electricity distribution network – and driving down the demand for gas.

We can drive reductions in our emissions through replacing old iron pipes with newer plastic ones, and proactively finding, and fixing methane leaks through the deployment of technology.

We can also reduce the emissions of the gas we use by blending biomethane and in turn hydrogen – which could account for 28% of the gas we distribute by 2035.

Finally, in the background we need to convert and develop the network to distribute hydrogen, providing low carbon energy where electrification is either unfeasible or uneconomic – and the network will be 95% ready by 2032.

The gas network is one of the few pieces of UK infrastructure we can be truly proud of. It delivers a first-class service keeping people warm and businesses and industry powered, with a world-class safety record. So why the seeming rush to get rid of it?

Instead of debating how soon we should start decommissioning our gas network, we should invest sensibly in it – and keep it at the forefront of driving innovation to simultaneously deliver gas at an affordable cost to consumers and help decarbonise our energy.

We need to stop reducing something so intricate to a binary debate and take a strong dose of pragmatism – not dogmatism.