Heat pumps are only for the elite, says the head of the British gas service.

National Gas chief John Butterworth said gas will still play a role in providing the UK with energy even as it moves towards zero emissions

Heat pumps are only for the 'privileged' who can afford them, said British gas network chief executive.

John Butterworth, chief executive of National Gas, said many people would find it difficult to heat their homes if they were offered alternatives such as hydrogen boilers.

«My personal opinion is that I'm worried that electrification seems privileged and that's not what our country is about,» he said in an interview. with The Telegraph.

“We must electrify everything we can. But I find it hard to imagine how you can electrify an apartment in London with an air source heat pump. I just don't see how that's possible.

«People — decent, hard-working families — need affordable options.»

Mr Butterworth's warning comes as both the Conservative Party and Labor rethink their commitment to a green agenda, fearing that a costly net-zero policy could backfire on voters.

The government is pushing to deploy heat pumps across throughout the country and banned gas boilers from 2035 to encourage people to switch to them.

However, the use of heat pumps powered by electricity was low. In 2021, these units accounted for just 2% of all heating systems sold in the UK, the lowest share in Europe, according to the European Heat Pump Association.

1807 Adoption backlog

Many people were put off by high installation costs heat pump, as well as the need for modernization in some cases to ensure the efficient operation of the devices.

Mr Butterworth said: “You have to have mega-insulation, really good quality insulation, before you can start electrifying without exorbitant costs. Heat pumps simply cannot be an option for all households.”

Mr Butterworth is running the UK gas network at a key moment for the sector. The National Grid, which until recently operated the gas grid, is phasing out fossil fuels in electricity generation as the grid increasingly draws electricity from renewable energy sources.

Earlier this year, National Grid sold a 60 percent stake in its gas transmission and metering business to Macquarie Asset Management and British Columbia Investment Management Corporation.

The assets were renamed National Gas. Mr. Butterworth, who began his career in the sector at 16 as an apprentice with British Gas, became Executive Director of National Grid Gas Transmission and Metering in 2021 and has continued to lead since the sale.

He is spearheading what supportive politicians and activists hope will be cuts in natural gas production.

Jess Ralston of Energy & The Climate Intelligence Team said: “We are seeing a significant change in the role of gas. It will probably no longer be used for our energy and will no longer be used for heating.”

However, Mr Butterworth is adamant that it will remain an important part of the British energy sector.

“ We need to think about a unified system,” he said. “When there is no wind, gas is absolutely necessary.

“If we didn’t have gas in 2022, there would be 260 days where we would have rolling blackouts, and 26 of those days would have been blackouts.

“Society is putting pressure on electrification at speed without considering the big picture. If we're not careful, we'll over-electrify. But when it comes to winter, we need plenty of gas ready to go.”

85% of British homes now have gas-fired boilers, which means a quick switch from gas will be difficult.

> Installation of heat pumps throughout Europe

The new energy efficiency requirements for buildings mean that new buildings will be much better equipped. Mr. Butterworth notes that most of the houses “that will be built around 2050” have already been built.”

He said: “It is very important to try to electrify them all. We must do the right thing for everyone and give them a choice.”

For Mr Butterworth, hydrogen is the future of the UK gas grid. The gas, which can be produced by carbon-free electrolysis, is touted as a way to heat homes by repurposing natural gas boilers.

“We can electrify what we can electrify, but we must admit that we have there must be hydrogen if this country is to maintain its position as one of the greatest trading powers on earth.”

However, this is expensive and the technology is in its infancy. The infrastructure must also be retooled to handle smaller gas molecules.

Energy Minister Grant Shapps said earlier this month: «There was a time when people thought you had something like a gas boiler and we would run it with hydrogen.»

The problem with that is that hydrogen molecules are very small. Potentially, you will have to replace quite a lot of pipes.

“So I’m not sure that the heating of the house will be completely carried out by hydrogen.”

Hydrogen also proved unpopular with the public. . Plans to test a hydrogen boiler at Whitby were canceled due to opposition from local residents. It looks like the same thing will happen at Redcar.

Mr Butterworth said: “It's not that people don't need hydrogen. They also don't need air source heat pumps. They just want to save their gas.”

Hydrogen is likely to play a much more important role in heavy industry power generation than in people's homes,” Ms. Ralston said. These industries require large amounts of thermal energy, which cannot be efficiently obtained from electricity.

“Hydrogen will be of great importance for such heavy industries as steel, glass, ceramics, cement,” she said.

However, electricity is also insufficient for many other industries, says Mr. Butterworth.

“About 300,000 businesses, from fish and chip shops to hotels, restaurants and cookie makers, need gas to run their businesses. We may be romantic about electricity, but they need thermal energy on a large scale to do what they need.”

If hydrogen is the future of the gas network, then there is still an issue of affordability, and the existing gas network is also in need of major upgrades to ensure its capacity.

National Gas is starting to repurpose the Feeder Nine, a huge high-pressure pipeline along the east coast of England that supplies heavy industry.

It also has a test site on the Scottish border called the Future Grid. Here, National Gas is using decommissioned sections of the network to assess the impact of transporting hydrogen on pipelines.

Mr Butterworth said: “Over the past few years, we have cut all parts of the system across the country, recycled them, welded them together again , and then pumped with high pressure hydrogen for all sorts of tests».

Ultimately, National Gas intends to repurpose the existing transmission network — a system of huge pipes that carry gas in large quantities from high-pressure LNG terminals in the North Sea, the Irish Sea, and from storage facilities and then send it through gas turbines to cities. The process will take 20 years and tens of billions of pounds.

Mr Butterworth expects about a fifth of the UK's natural gas network to supply hydrogen within a decade. Hydrogen could completely replace natural gas in the future, he said.

“By 2050, we can reach 100 percent if we demand hydrogen boilers and work with industry to change some of their components.”

p>

The government needs to provide more certainty to encourage investment in hydrogen, he said.

Mr Butterworth said: «We're just waiting for policy on what it will look like, before investors start pouring serious money into hydrogen.”

The UK can learn from the German approach, he said. There, the government has delegated heating decisions to local governments.

Mr Butterworth said: “There is a more delegated responsibility for delivering net zero to the equivalent of our mayors. It just takes more into account the demographics of the society. The more you move decision making into the trench, the better it gets.”

However, when it comes to Whitby, those decisions are also more likely to be just “no” to change. .