The Energy Networks Association (ENA) Gas Futures Group is launching a tender process for a service provider to assess the optimal domestic heating pathways that will enable the UK to meet its carbon and renewable targets out to 2050.

The findings that will emerge from this work will help inform Government policy and the regulatory framework for gas into the next few decades.

Commenting on the tender launch Duncan Rimmer, Chair of the Gas Futures Group said: “This work could not come at a more critical time. It will be vital in helping shape policy. The heat choices we make must be a central consideration when assessing future energy policy.”

The ENA represents the ‘wires and pipes’ transmission and distribution network operators for gas and electricity in the UK and Ireland.

In 2010 the ENA gas distribution members commissioned Redpoint Consulting to undertake a long-range scenario-based modelling study of the future utilisation of gas out to 2050, and the consequential impacts of this for gas networks.