UKEn and Portland Port to work on hydrogen storage project
Development is planned to transition seamlessly into green hydrogen production and storage as the 'hydrogen economy' evolves.
UK Oil & Gas PLC announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, UK Energy Storage Ltd (UKEn) signed an Agreement to Lease (A2L) with Portland Port Limited (PPL) covering two sites at the former Royal Navy port in Dorset.
The plan is to develop a planned integrated Energy-Hub, centred around hydrogen-ready gas storage and a future green hydrogen generation capability.
As agreed between the parties, UKEn’s planned Energy-Hub development concept seeks to reinvigorate and build further upon a prior unrealised project by Portland Gas Storage Ltd, granted planning consent by Dorset County Council in 2008, to situate approximately 43 billion ft³ “bcf” (1.2 billion m³ or “bcm”) of underground salt cavern storage beneath PPL’s land. Utilising established engineering concepts, public record planning submissions, publicly available data, UKOG internal studies and technical, engineering and economic modelling advice from Xodus Group, the planned new Energy-Hub is envisaged to include the following key elements:
Salt cavern storage would be linked to the national pipeline transmission system (NTS) via a new planned hydrogen-ready pipeline. As per the prior 2008 project, the new pipeline would be designed with an envisaged capacity to handle up to 1 bcf/day (28 million m ³ /day). For context, this throughput capacity, if achieved, would equate to approximately one-seventh (14%) of current estimated UK daily natural gas consumption;
Pilot-scale green hydrogen production and storage and hydrogen battery concept investigation. The Company and its consultant, Xodus plan to develop the future potential to supply renewable electricity for green hydrogen production at the site via an over-the-horizon floating wind farm, an area of Xodus expertise
The local high geothermal heat gradient to be investigated for possible local heat network and/or to power green hydrogen production.
The Company and PPL will also jointly investigate the potential for using future green hydrogen generation at the port to directly fuel future hydrogen propelled ships. The possibility of future green hydrogen export by ship will also be explored.
