Ireland’s decarbonisation journey over the coming decades will be critically dependent on its €3 billion national gas network. Not only is it providing the fuel to the power stations that provide backup generation when renewable sources aren’t available, it is also undergoing its own transition which will see it carry renewable biomethane and carbon-free, green hydrogen.
Brian Sheehan, director of assets and infrastructure with Gas Networks Ireland, will play a central role in that transition while also ensuring the network is capable of supporting the increasing amounts of backup electricity generation that will be required in the coming years.
“My role today covers asset management, capital project delivery, as well as health and safety, and quality,” he explains. “I am responsible for the management and strategic direction of our asset base. That base consists of almost 15,000km of pipeline in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the two interconnector pipelines with Scotland. It’s a key national asset for the State.
“Overall, we are responsible for the supply of 30 per cent of Ireland’s core energy demand and 40 per cent of its heat, as well as almost 50 per cent of its electricity generation, which can peak at up to 90 per cent when we are providing a reliable backup when weather-dependent renewables aren’t available. A lot of work goes into maintaining this network.”
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Investing in the future
Sheehan brings a wealth of experience, having first joined the organisation as a graduate engineer in 2000. “It was Bord Gáis Éireann at the time and included the networks and the retail arm and a lot else besides,” he recalls. “It was the organisation’s first graduate recruitment programme. I was one of two graduate engineers taken on that year. It was a hugely exciting time to join. The organisation was developing its Gas 2025 strategy, which was looking at gas demand and forecasting infrastructure needs out to 2025.”
Implementing that strategy involved a major investment programme. “We developed the second interconnector to Scotland, brought gas to the west of Ireland for the first time and connected the Corrib field. I was fortunate to be involved in some large-scale exciting projects. It was a great experience. Looking back on it, pretty much everything forecast in Gas 2025 came to pass.”
Having spent nine years, including two years as infrastructure delivery director with Uisce Éireann overseeing a capital programme of €1.3 billion per annum, he returned to Gas Networks Ireland in March of this year to take on his current role.
He believes the next 20 years will be every bit as, if not more, exciting than the past 25.
“When we look at where we are now, our vision for 2045 is set out in our Pathway to a Net Zero Carbon Network. I hope to be able to say the same for this vision as for Gas 2025 in terms of the accuracy of the forecast and the delivery of its objectives.
“Our recruitment for the graduate programme is currently open – and for young engineers joining us today that means they will get to work on lots of exciting and innovative projects in the coming years.”
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That programme of work will involve a careful balance between optimising existing assets and developing new ones. “The current asset base is there and already built,” Sheehan says. “We all know the challenges of building new infrastructure in the country at the moment. There are huge benefits to using assets already there. It doesn’t involve disruption to our customers or the public.”
“In the longer term the gas transported on our network will be circa 30 per cent biomethane and 70 per cent hydrogen. We have already started to bring biomethane on to the system, with one plant connected and another five to come in the near future. Hydrogen is at an early stage of feasibility and safety assessment. We are running a safety and technical programme for hydrogen which is very much focused on readiness. We are partnering with European and UK gas network operators to learn from them, and we are carrying out research in conjunction with third-level institutions like Ulster University and UCD.”
The organisation has also invested in a network innovation centre in Citywest in Dublin. “We are carrying out off-grid testing on the ability of the network to transport hydrogen. We are on the right path and the initial results indicated that we will be able to utilise our assets to transport 100 per cent hydrogen without a huge amount of modification.”
New asset development will be needed, of course and this is likely to involve significant investment over time. Feed-in stations to take biomethane from suppliers, compress it and feed it into the network will be required, for example.
A green network
“In the long term we will likely have a network divided between biomethane and hydrogen. We will effectively have parallel networks with green hydrogen going to large energy users and biomethane going to the distribution network for lower energy users.”
Investment will also be required to provide network connections to backup generating stations. “The Climate Action Plan has set a target of at least 2GW of new flexible backup generation for the country,” Sheehan notes. “Between population growth and the electrification of society it could end up being greater than that. Renewable gas will be a key enabler of meeting that target. At present, we have 10 projects to be connected on our delivery plan, some at design stage and some at point of delivery. And we anticipate more to come following the next auction for flexible generation.”
One of those projects is the 116MW Bord na Móna power station in Edenderry, Co Offaly. “The plant currently uses diesel, and natural gas will automatically reduce its emissions by 40 per cent. As we move over to biomethane and hydrogen its emissions will drop further in the future. We intend to build a 23-kilometre pipeline in the midlands to connect the plant. That will be quite a challenging project, but we’re engaging with local landowners and other stakeholders and the outcome so far has been positive. I expect we will be delivering new connections to backup power generating stations until 2030 and beyond.”
Those new developments will require new talent as well as investment. “The engineering skills we have in the organisation are second to none,” he says. “However, we still need to ensure we have the engineering and technical skill sets required to future-proof the organisation. We recognise that these skills are in high demand and we are running graduate and apprenticeship programmes to meet our needs. I am confident that with the opportunities we are offering young engineers we will be able to attract the people we need.”
Health and safety are key area of focus for the organisation. “For almost 50 years we have had a hugely positive safety record,” he says. “We pride ourselves on doing things properly. We have a Work Safe Home Safe programme to keep our people and our 725,000 customers safe. We have just recorded three million accident-free hours and we’re still counting.”
He concludes by returning to the sustainability theme. “We are supporting the Climate Action Plan by connecting backup power stations to the grid and by transitioning to renewable gases. We also want to reduce our own emissions. We have two gas-powered compressor stations at the interconnectors in Scotland. They account for 50 per cent of our greenhouse gas emissions and we have a number of initiatives in progress that demonstrate our commitment to decarbonising our operations.”
Those interconnectors could also play a significant role in energy exports should Ireland begin to manufacture hydrogen in large volumes from surplus power from offshore wind. “With not a huge amount of modification the interconnectors could be made bidirectional to export green hydrogen to the UK. We are fortunate to have a gas network in place that is integrated with Ireland’s electricity network. That makes it ideally placed to be part of Ireland’s decarbonised energy future.”
For more information, please visit gasnetworks.ie