Tifani Nastiti: Working in gas and hydrogen, and why they both matter

Tifani Nastiti, a Senior Safety Engineer for National Gas, writes about the vital role that gas still has as part of the current energy mix, how she’s helping to explore alternative sources with hydrogen and the benefit she gets from being on the Prospect Energy Sector Executive Committee.

When National Gas wants to install new facilities, they carry out location and layout reviews, and I’ll be the subject matter expert and policy owner for the facility siting and layout. I can assist the project, if they have any questions and review any deviation requests.

However, since this time last year, I’m in a new role for hydrogen and carbon capture, so for clean energy. However, it’s only come to fruition in the last couple of months as more hydrogen projects have been approved by Ofgem.

So, maybe about 50% of my time is now working in hydrogen. One difference is that rather than being the policy owner, I’m trying to write the policy as well because it’s all new!

Tifani Nastiti

Every time we undertake a new project we do safety studies and review safety systems and designs. If there is something that is high risk, or we identify a safety or environmental concern, that will be my number one priority.

For hydrogen projects, we’re using our skills and experience from natural gas and applying it to a new technology. This means we need to take extra care when it comes to safety, which sometimes means projects may take a little longer than we had initially hoped.

I’m on site maybe once per quarter, so not often, but I’m working with contractors a lot. I am usually in their office, or in the project office.

The forgotten energy source

We are in a new and exciting phase of Britain’s energy landscape. People rightly talk a lot about renewables, like solar and wind, and then there’s nuclear, but it’s sometimes forgotten that gas remains Britian’s primary energy system, at times providing more than two thirds of the electricity we generate.

It’s also a new transition for me because I still work in natural gas but, increasingly so, in hydrogen as well.

Hydrogen is rightly seen as a new and clean energy source, but there are challenges we still need to overcome to see hydrogen production at scale. We also see a degree of competition between the various energy sources, which I often think is unhelpful.

For me, I see the opportunity of hydrogen as finding another valuable source of energy – providing an alternative and a pathway to decarbonisation, particularly for hard to electrify industries.

We need to diversify our energy portfolio as a country so that we are not fully dependent on one single source, which may be detrimental for our energy security.

Gas will absolutely continue to play a part in that.

We still have dozens and dozens of gas-fired powered stations in the UK, which provides about a quarter of our energy needs. Just think, as we approach the coldest months of the year, how many people are still reliant on gas boilers for their heating and hot water?

As for hydrogen, I think it’s promising. Of course, there are challenges but I feel with the current research and the investment we are making, it will become a viable alternative energy source. Again, not replacing anything, but an alternative option that we can call upon.

Joining Prospect

I came from a consultancy where there were no unions.

I joined National Gas in mid-2023 and I joined Prospect in early 2024. It was a new thing for me, learning that there is a trade union in the company.

One of my colleagues is a Prospect representative for National Gas and she explained the role of trade unions, what they do and how they can help.

What was important to me is having support in an area that I’m not an expert in. For example, I know about engineering, but I don’t know about employment law.

Joining the Sector Executive Committee

A colleague and a fellow member asked me if I would be interested in standing for Prospect’s Energy Sector Executive, and I’m quite passionate about energy so I thought I would give it a go.

I want to learn about what’s happening in other parts of the industry, like from the other executive committee members, to enrich my own knowledge. That’s a real benefit I get out of it.

I attended my first meeting of the Executive Committee in July and I can really see the value of sharing with one another what’s been happening and what are the difficulties. It’s really opened my mind.

We share many of the same burdens, so let’s see how we can help one another and by working together we can make a positive difference for everyone.