A rapid hardening of hydrogen policy could pave the way for the huge Rough storage facility to provide energy security for the short term, holding crucial winter gas supplies.
Government laying out a regulatory framework for storage of the key solution to reach Net Zero could also build the case for the East Yorkshire asset to play a vital role as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues.
Should the Putin regime cut off gas supplies to Europe then the squeeze could be put on market supply from Norway - a country the UK has direct pipeline links with.
Read more: Energy giants Uniper and Shell unite for South Humber hydrogen production plan
As reported, a £1.6 billion plan to transform the facility - operated from Easington - could support more than 4,000 jobs across the wider economy, with 450 there.
Major hydrogen production plans are harboured in the Humber, and plans to use the vast caverns under the North Sea to hold it, balancing supply and demand, were brought forward as an option for Rough last summer. November saw it put at the heart of the company's COP26 response.
Now as ministers look to ensure the lights stay on amid the ongoing conflict, with reports of worst case scenario plans being tested, one solution has been highlighted.
A spokesperson for Centrica said it had been talking to the government about Rough “for some time in terms of long term hydrogen, but with some shorter term options around methane given the current global situation”.
The discussions have been termed as “constructive” with up to £2 billion potentially required to make the complete switch and bring it back to operation.
Rough has operated since the Seventies, and as discovered gas depleted, chambers were switched to storage, with first use in 1985. Centrica acquired it in 2002, ending storage in 2017, beyond its initial design life - as the market couldn’t support the investment and model. Final production is anticipated to come to a close next year.
A spokesperson said: “A market-only solution to secure the investment needed in Rough is not viable due to a lack of market stability, and although the hydrogen economy is evolving rapidly, it is difficult to establish precisely at what point hydrogen storage will be used at sufficient scale to produce a reliable revenue stream.
“Investment could be secured, but would require a regulatory backstop, along the lines of other energy infrastructure projects like nuclear and carbon capture.
”If we could move quickly on a regulatory backstop, the physical changes required to turn Rough back into a gas storage facility in the short term would be relatively quick.”
It is understood that would be months rather than years - providing potential for the winter, with government having already asked the likes of Drax to retain coal-generation as an option should the war lead to a severing of energy supply.
At Easington, Centrica has just welcomed first gas from Tolmount, a timely addition of another 5 per cent UK supply.
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