The Opportunity

The objective of this opportunity is to shortlist the submissions that best answer the brief, with the aim of attending a presentation day with the EIC's Industry Partners, where it can be discussed in greater detail with a technical panel.

The EIC welcomes submissions from individual companies or companies working in collaboration with each other.

What's the Problem?

Gas shrinkage is Northern Gas Networks' (NGN) primary source of greenhouse gas emissions; with the drive towards net zero by 2050, it’s vital they address the amount of greenhouse gas escapes.

Shrinkage is the loss of gas from the network during its transportation to customers and is a combination of leakage, venting, purging of gas, own use of gas and theft of gas.

The baseline shrinkage amount is agreed at the start of each price control between the network and Ofgem. The network records their shrinkage annually to provide an average over the price control, using methods such as pressure measurement systems, public reported escapes, interference damages etc to monitor it.

If the network shrinkage is reported to be higher than their agreed baseline, the network will be subjected to financial penalties from the regulator. Should the networks report below baseline shrinkage, they may receive financial reward.

Preferred Output

This network is looking for a TRL 8 or above solution that will complement the existing methods (as detailed above) to support the management shrinkage.

Current methods for managing shrinkage are:

• A 30-year pipe replacement program, which is replacing old metallic pipes with a more robust and sustainable polyethylene
• The use of a chemical known as Monoethylene Glycol (MEG) which provides a gas tight seal within metallic pipes
• A pressure management system is also used in conjunction with above methods that indicates any drops in pressure which will be investigated.