The 12 month trial, headed up by HiiROC, will see hydrogen mixed with natural gas at the 49MW gas fired plant in Brigg, which is designed to meet energy demand during peak times, or when renewables generation is low, operating for less than three hours a day on average.

Expected to get underway in the third quarter of 2023, H2 View understands ‘no more’ than 3% of the gas mix will be hydrogen, initially, with hopes of increasing to 20% incrementally after the project.

It is hoped the HiiROC trial will pave the way to see the move to 100% hydrogen in the long term, seeing similar technology deployed across all gas-fired peaking plants.

In 2021, HiiROC revealed it had completed a major funding round which would see £26m ($29.4m), used to develop a new breakthrough hydrogen production technology, which saw Centrica, among other companies come as a key investor.

Read more: HiiROC raised £26m to aid in developing its innovative turquoise hydrogen production technology

According to HiiROC, its technology converts biomethane, flare gas, or natural gas into clean hydrogen and carbon black, through a thermal plasma electrolysis process, resulting in low carbon or potential negative carbon hydrogen.

Part funded by a grant from the Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC), which has awarded 20 projects a total of £8m ($9m) through its Open Innovation Programme, it is hoped the pilot project will aid in enabling the delivery of the UK’s Net Zero ambitions.

Tim Davies, CEO of HiiROC, said, “This exciting project with Centrica and the NZTC at the Brigg facility will be a first step on the journey to enable the decarbonisation of gas peaking plants.

“With the continued and crucial rollout of renewable energy generation, intermittency of power supply is a key issue, and the programme we are developing with Centrica will explore routes to address intermittency without generating carbon dioxide emissions.”

Ahead of the trial, Centrica has said it has increased its stake in HiiROC to around 5%, deepening its commitment to the development of hydrogen technologies in the UK.

“Gas still plays a huge role in maintaining a secure, stable supply of power in the UK, with around 40% of our power coming from natural gas,” said Greg McKenna, Managing Director of Centrica Business Solution.

McKenna added, “We’re delighted to get the grant funding from the NZTC in order to explore the role of hydrogen in providing the low carbon back-up power we’ll need in order to maintain security of supply as more renewable energy comes on stream.”