Chamber and committees

The ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operator is contractually obliged to continually improve the quality of the service for drivers. This includes a necessary shift from monthly billing to pay-as-you-go payment for charging using the CPS card or mobile app. This enables an experience akin to how drivers pay for petrol and diesel at traditional forecourts and has been widely welcomed by users. This has necessitated the migration to a new payment service provider (PSP).

Transport Scotland officials and the CPS operator have held regular discussions about future enhancements, including the planned roll-out of the new PSP. Following the launch of the new PSP on 24 April this year, the CPS operator immediately notified Transport Scotland about the emergence of a technical issue which impacted less than 1% of CPS users. The CPS operator has provided regular briefings to Transport Scotland on the cause, impact and corrective actions, including advanced notice of the resolution that was implemented on 10 May.

The CPS operator will provide Transport Scotland with a detailed report on the issue, Transport Scotland officials will also meet senior managers from the CPS operator to discuss key lessons learned.

Following the implementation of a new payment service provider, Transport Scotland were notified by the ChargePlace Scotland (CPS) operator of a technical issue that was affecting less than 1% of CPS users. The issue caused the cards of those CPS members affected to be automatically ‘blocked’ by the system, leaving them unable to charge. Affected drivers were able to use other methods to charge, such as Webpay and contactless where available, and could also contact the CPS customer service team to start a charge remotely. The issue was fully resolved on 10 May. No compensation arrangements are in place, and to date CPS has not been contacted by any CPS users, including business users, seeking any.

The Scottish Government is committed to supporting the development of the Acorn project and the Scottish Cluster, which are essential for the production of low carbon hydrogen at scale. I attended the Inter-Ministerial Group in February and sit on the UK CCUS Ministerial Forum to represent Scottish interests and make the case for progress on Acorn to be accelerated. The Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy, and the previous Cabinet Secretary for Cabinet Secretary for Wellbeing Economy, Fair Work and Energy have also written to the UK Government in recent months to make the case for the acceleration of the Acorn project.

The decision to award the Acorn project is reserved to the UK Government and despite announcing in July 2023 that the Acorn project is ‘best placed’ to meet the criteria, there is still no final decision from the UK Government. This adds further delays to the deployment of CCUS in Scotland.

The Hydrogen Innovation Scheme (HIS) aims to support the development and demonstration of renewable hydrogen technologies and products needed to support our ambition of 5GW installed hydrogen production capacity by 2030. The HIS targets support for innovation under the themes of renewable hydrogen production, hydrogen storage and distribution, and integration of hydrogen into our energy system.

Successful applicants were announced by the then First Minister Humza Yousaf at the All Energy Conference in May 2023. Over £7m in HIS funding grant awards were made to 31 to feasibility and demonstration projects in Scotland.

To date, 10 projects have been successfully completed, with the remaining 21 projects due for completion by March 2025. All have performed or are performing well in meeting their agreed outputs.

The Scottish Government is clear that hydrogen has a key part to play as a renewable and low carbon source of energy to help meet our net zero ambitions. We remain committed to delivering the strategic approach and actions required to support the development of the hydrogen economy in Scotland over the course of this Parliament.

We are committed to delivering on our Hydrogen Action Plan, and to a hydrogen investment programme. Whilst there are currently no plans to open a call for applications to the Green Hydrogen Fund as a direct result of the UK Government imposed 10% cut to the Scottish Government capital budget, we continue to support hydrogen projects across Scotland on a case-by-case basis and will engage with projects as they come forward. In doing so, we will be working with Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise and other stakeholders.

We also continue to support hydrogen innovation through our Hydrogen Innovation Scheme and, alongside Scotland’s academic researchers and industry, facilitate collaboration and develop impactful R&D projects including work on establishing the case for pipeline transportation of hydrogen from Scotland to Europe.

The Scottish Government has worked with agencies and other partners, including internationally, to deliver initiatives in support of the development of zero emission mobility technology. These include funding the University of St Andrews to deliver, in partnership with Strathclyde University, a four-year Hydrogen Accelerator programme. The Accelerator has helped to support several innovative projects including the Scottish hydrogen train, which was demonstrated at Bo’ness in 2022.

We are working with industry and enterprise agency partners to develop a Hydrogen Sector Export Plan for publication this year. The plan will set out the steps needed to realise Scotland's export potential - including the development of critical infrastructure to support the transport of hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives, short-term export opportunities around skills and the supply chain, and the economic opportunity for Scotland represented by renewable hydrogen exports in the longer term.

Scottish Government officials are engaging with National Grid on the Project Union initiative exploring the phased repurposing of the UK’s natural gas National Transmission System (NTS) to create a UK hydrogen backbone carrying 100% hydrogen. Decisions on the future of the Gas Grid are a reserved matter and are expected to be made in 2026 by the UK Government. We continue to routinely engage with UKG on a range of hydrogen policy matters including recent consultations on Transport and Storage Hydrogen Business Models

SGN are core members of the Scottish Hydrogen Industry Forum.

Scotland’s huge potential for renewable electricity generation, and hydrogen’s utility, means that it can also act as a vector for energy storage and a balancing service to the electricity grid. It can additionally act as a vector for transportation, particularly considering grid constraints.

We are engaging closely with the UKG, OfGEM, and National Grid ESO ahead of the launch of the National Energy System operator this Summer to underline the need for strategic planning and to ensure that hydrogen production, storage and system utility is considered and other areas such as progressive approaches to flexibility reform and grid connection timelines, as they affect the viability of hydrogen projects, are reflected in our engagement in strategic programmes such as the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) and Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) and the ESO Constraints Collaboration project which is seeking solutions for thermal constraints, which can reduce costs to the consumer or reduce the curtailment of renewable generation.

We are convinced that hydrogen will play an important role as an energy storage and balancing asset to the wider energy system electricity and gas grids as the share of renewable generation continues to increase.

We published a report in 2023 which can be found here investigating the options for storing energy in the form of hydrogen in Scotland and its potential for reducing curtailment of renewable energy and the role of hydrogen peaking power plants for electricity generation during times of low renewable energy generation.

The study found that hydrogen storage will play an important role in balancing an energy system that has large amounts of intermittent renewable energy. These findings have informed our position and engagement on strategic programme discussions such as the Review of Electricity Market Arrangements (REMA) and Strategic Spatial Energy Plan (SSEP) and the ESO Constraints Collaboration project, which is seeking solutions for thermal constraints, which can reduce costs to the consumer or reduce the curtailment of renewable generation.

The Scottish Government continues to build a strong evidence base in relation to the development of key infrastructure, transport routes and supply chains necessary to develop hydrogen export opportunities.