8 April 2009 - UK energy regulator Ofgem has begun an industry consultation on National Grid's proposal to investigate the reuse of some of its natural gas transmission pipelines in Scotland for the transportation from 2013 of carbon dioxide from power stations and heavy industry for storage offshore.
Scotland, alongside the Humber region in England, offers some of the best opportunities for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in Europe, with power stations and other heavy industry close to the North Sea oil and gas fields that, when depleted, could provide storage for their carbon dioxide emissions.
CCS networks in Scotland and Humberside could together result in a reduction of up to 78m tonnes of carbon dioxide per year (60 for Humberside and 18 for Scotland), equivalent to taking all of Britain's cars off the road.
Alongside this substantial reduction in emissions, CCS would also bring benefits to security of supply from allowing coal to remain part of a future diverse low carbon energy mix.
National Grid is investigating opportunities to apply its expertise in gas pipelines to CCS. Providing a network where clusters of power stations or other heavy industry adopting CCS use the same pipeline infrastructure would be much more practical and economic than the wasteful duplication of each building their own separate pipeline.
National Grid has been in discussion with a number of parties pursuing an interest in CCS, although the details remain commercially confidential.
Ofgem's consultation will allow an industry debate on the extent to which existing natural gas transmission pipelines could be reused for carbon dioxide transport.
Declining supplies from the North Sea, and the changing shape overall of supplies to the UK mean that the natural gas capacity needed in certain parts of the system is expected to reduce over the next decade and beyond. In light of this, pipelines connecting the St Fergus gas terminal on the coast of Scotland to the rest of the network have been identified as potentially available in future for carbon dioxide transportation.
Reusing existing pipelines in this way would further reduce the costs of implementing CCS.
Chris Train, National Grid's Director of Network Operations, said: "This consultation marks a step in carbon capture and storage moving from concept to reality. The world faces two vital challenges - fighting climate change and maintaining secure energy supplies.
"We need to address both together. Carbon capture and storage could play a significant role by allowing coal to remain part of our energy mix, with diversity of energy sources so important to security of supply, while at the same time allowing a substantial drop in emissions.
"Networks for CCS transportation make simple common sense compared to the lack of joined up thinking that would be inherent in each power station building their own pipelines independently.
"National Grid has a great wealth of experience that it could bring to bear here, whether that is building new carbon dioxide pipelines or reusing existing natural gas pipelines. It's still early days, but we're keen to investigate what we can contribute."
