IN Brief:
- UK Power Networks is developing a hydrogen backup system for rural network resilience.
- The SHARED project combines electrolysis, hydrogen storage, fuel cells, and sensor-led control.
- The work targets lower-carbon restoration options where conventional reinforcement is costly or difficult.
UK Power Networks is developing a hydrogen-based backup system designed to restore supply to rural communities within seconds during power cuts.
The project, known as SHARED, will assess how local hydrogen production, storage, fuel-cell conversion, and sensor-led control can support electricity distribution resilience in areas where conventional reinforcement can be costly or difficult to deliver quickly.
Electricity from the network would be used during low-demand periods to produce hydrogen through water electrolysis. The hydrogen would then be stored locally in a low-pressure system and converted back into electricity through a fuel cell during an interruption, allowing power to be fed remotely into the local network.
The initial phase is expected to run for six months and will examine rural deployment locations, technical requirements, and the design of modular units ranging from 10kVA to 100kVA. Frazer-Nash Consultancy and The First Element are supporting the work, which is being developed as a lower-carbon alternative to emergency diesel generation.
Diesel generators remain widely used for temporary network support because they are mobile, proven, and simple to deploy. They also bring fuel logistics, emissions, noise, maintenance requirements, and operational constraints. A local hydrogen system introduces a different set of engineering considerations, including electrolyser efficiency, water supply, fuel-cell response, storage safety, controls integration, and whole-life cost.
Rural networks present a difficult resilience problem. Long feeders, dispersed demand, limited redundancy, weather exposure, and access constraints can all lengthen restoration times. Reinforcement may require significant capital works, particularly where customer density is low and the benefit of conventional upgrades must be weighed against cost and construction disruption.
Hydrogen backup would need to deliver rapid response, predictable autonomy, safe operation, and straightforward maintenance if it is to perform as a distribution-network asset. The system would also need to operate cleanly with local protection settings, avoid power-quality issues, and integrate with control-room processes used during fault restoration.
The work sits alongside a broader shift in distribution operation, where networks are becoming more data-led and actively managed. The open-source tools covered in UKPN DSO launches open-source Python data package illustrate that move toward greater visibility, modelling, and controllability across local networks.
A hydrogen backup system would add another layer to that operating model. Instead of treating backup generation as a standalone temporary asset, the SHARED concept links generation, storage, sensors, and remote control into a coordinated distribution response. That creates opportunities for lower-carbon resilience, but it also raises practical questions around safety cases, maintenance regimes, system availability, and the operational skills needed to manage electrochemical and electrical assets together.
The rural focus also reflects the uneven character of electrification. Urban networks face constraints around substation space, commercial demand, heat electrification, and transport charging. Rural systems face long circuits, generation export, storm exposure, and lower redundancy. Technologies developed for one setting cannot simply be transferred into another without careful assessment of local network conditions.
UKPN’s ownership context has also changed, with Engie completing its acquisition of UK Power Networks. The regulated obligations of the distribution operator remain in place, but local network resilience, flexibility, and decarbonisation are becoming more strategically important as electrification pushes new loads onto distribution infrastructure.
If the SHARED project progresses beyond its initial phase, hydrogen backup could sit alongside conventional reinforcement, flexibility services, mobile generation, automation, and targeted asset replacement. Its value will depend on whether the technology can meet the reliability, cost, safety, and maintainability standards expected of established distribution assets.