Padua, September 10th, 2019– SIT,
through the Smart Gas Metering operating subsidiary Metersit, following an international tender, has been selected by the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to develop a hydrogen meter as part of the national Hy4Heat project.
Hy4Heat is a UK government programme established to determine the technical feasibility, safety conditions and convenience of replacing methane gas with hydrogen in both commercial and residential appliances. The Hy4Heat programme is part of the national heat decarbonisation plan, one of the greatest challenges for the United Kingdom in controlling climate change. The objective is to cut CO2 emissions, with hydrogen use as one of the strategic options.
The Hy4Heat programme covers the entire hydrogen for heating chain for both domestic and commercial use. SIT has been assigned a major role within the Smart Metering sector in which its technology can play a key role.
The objective of SIT’s work package is to develop a meter prototype which guarantees safety and the precise measurement of hydrogen flows. The prototype should be compatible with sector regulations (MID/Ofgem) and country specifications (SMETS 2), while also taking into consideration the particular characteristics of hydrogen in terms of its greater risk and reduced heating power by volume unit. From this point of view, the thermo-mass technology, unique to SIT, can reduce meter size, another of the requirements of the tender.
The Hy4Heat programme requires the delivery of the prototype by the first quarter of 2021.
This achievement represents a further step of SIT as leader in the development of highly innovative and advanced technological applications in the metering industry at international level.