CNG Services - Queens's Award for Innovation award

NOT FOR PUBLICATION BEFORE 00.01 HOURS ON 21 APRIL 2016

Queens's Award for Innovation awarded to CNG Services for developing biomethane-to-grid sector

Gas connections company has played a key role in getting ‘green gas' into homes and companies CNG Services is delighted to announce today, 21 April 2016, that it has been selected as one of the businesses to receive the 2016 Queen's Award for Enterprise - the UK's highest accolade for business success.

CNG Services' award was received for Innovation, in recognition of the company's leadership role in the creation of the biomethane -to-grid (BtG) market.

BtG is the process whereby biomethane, a renewable ‘green' gas, is injected into the UK's gas grid, giving the UK a highly flexible and efficient source of sustainable energy made from organic material including food waste.

CNG Services, which was founded in 2003, is the leading provider of gas engineering and consultancy services to this market having been involved in around 90% of the BtG projects completed to date. The award recognises CNG Services' key role in helping to create the right economic, legislative and technical environment to foster this new renewable energy sector.

John Baldwin, founder and managing director of CNG Services says: "I'm delighted we've won this award and I hope that it will make more people aware they can now get green gas for their central heating and cooking and companies can use it in manufacturing or to fuel trucks."

"We've got the fastest growing biomethane market in the world with a total of 65 biomethane producers now connected to the gas grid. By mid-2017, when all the completed projects are at full capacity, there will be around 120 million therms/annum going into to grid, equal to the gas consumption of around 240,000 homes. Put another way, that's around 240,000 tonnes of LNG that the UK won't have to import from the Middle East."

"Biomethane is now seen as the UK's leading renewable heat technology and is a major part of our long term energy future."

"I would say the development of this exciting new sector is in no small part due to the efforts of the Renewable Energy Association and the Gas Distribution Networks who have had the foresight to see the benefits from injecting green gas and have supported it all the way."

Graham Edwards, chief executive of Wales and West Utilities "CNG's vision, drive and foresight has contributed to the development of a major green technology that will save millions of tonnes of carbon each year. Their persistent determination to overcome the obstacles to biomethane has resulted in a new energy source emerging in the UK".

Tim Davis, managing director of Barrow Green Gas said:

“"I'm delighted that CNG Services has received this richly deserved recognition.

Dealing with CNG Services is a challenge in the best possible sense. When the options are A or B, CNG Services will suggest C! The ability to think outside the box and find options which others have never begun to think of is the mark of true innovators."

Neil Liddell-Young, renewable energy manager at Severn Trent Water said: "In September 2014 Severn Trent Water became the first company in the UK to supply biomethane produced from sewage at a commercial scale into the National gas grid."

"This innovative approach to supply and transmission of renewable energy required new technology to upgrade the sewage gas and fundamental changes to the way the gas grid is used. We worked very closely with CNG services to navigate though a complex and difficult journey of safety, regulatory and technology concerns that any early adopter must face. John Baldwin and his team at CNG services provided drive, enthusiasm and expertise which was critical to the success of our project and the much wider uptake that has followed across the UK." Charlie Fillingham, managing director, Strutt and Parker (Farms) Limited who developed the Euston Biogas project said: "We are extremely pleased that CNG Services has won the Queen's award for innovation. We have been working with CNG on a number of projects and have always been impressed with their capability and ambition in developing new ideas to bring down the cost of manufacture and transmission of biomethane gas. We believe this award to be thoroughly deserved and wish them well for the future!!"

Biomethane is ‘tracked' through the gas grid using the Green Gas Certification Scheme (GGCS), which tracks every unit of green gas from injection into the grid to consumption by a gas customer.

Green gas is now being used by Waitrose to fuel its supermarket distribution trucks and by food manufacturers such as cheese producer Wyke Dairies.

To win the award, CNG Services demonstrated how it pioneered BtG technology, from a pilot in Didcot in 2010 through to the first commercial connection at Poundbury in 2012 and onto a total of 65 projects by April 2016.

Ends

• 249 Queen's Awards (QA) have been announced this year for outstanding business achievement in the fields of International Trade, Innovation and Sustainable Development. Winners of The Queen's Awards can expect an invitation to attend a special reception at Buckingham Palace.

• QA winners can also use The Queen's Award Emblem in advertising, marketing and on packaging for a period of five years as a symbol of their quality and success.

• The awards are made annually by HM The Queen and are only given for the highest levels of excellence demonstrated in each category.

• To find out more about next year's awards visit the Queen's Award website

CNG Services CNG Services Ltd (CSL) provides design, build and project management services in relation to new gas pipelines, CNG filling stations, biomethane to grid plants and in relation to onshore natural gas processing plants. This includes connections to the high pressure LTS (Local Transmission System) and NTS (National Transmission System) where CSL integrates the design and build of the LTS/NTS connection and associated pipeline with the main project which can be CNG filling station, gas power plant, biomethane to grid plant or onshore gas processing facility.

As far back as 2010, CNG Services developed a pilot project with Centrica, Thames Water and Southern Gas Networks at Didcot sewage treatment works. This injected biomethane into the gas grid in 2010 and its success overcame Health and Safety Executive (HSE) related gas quality issues.

To date, CNG Services has been involved in 90% of the BtG connections in the UK.

John Baldwin also chairs the Renewable Energy Association Biogas Group and was the instigator of the ‘not for profit' Green Gas Certification Scheme.

CNG Services Limited www.cngservices.co.uk