Balancing Act

Balancing Act is a BSL research project investigating how much gas network spending could be avoided and diverted to assist households to move away from fossil fuels by electrifying their homes. We are especially focused on households facing disadvantage.

Balancing Act has two phases. The first developed a framework to assess proposals to shrink the gas network with electrification, called network pruning. The research provides context and describes gas network pruning with examples. We then present our framework, which could be used by policymakers or interested community groups. Next, we examine how much of the information needed for this framework is publicly available. We find that much of the information is not public, and its accessibility is poor. We propose governments implement ways to avoid further spending on gas networks, and a review to increase transparency and improve planning processes for gas.

The second phase of Balancing Act will test a hypothetical pruning proposal in a real location, through both social research focusing on households facing disadvantage and a cost–benefit analysis.

The research is being conduced by BSL in partnership with X and X.

Contact: 

Reports

Bryant, D & Sullivan, D 2026,  Balancing act: project report on pruning gas networks

Bryant, D & Sullivan, D 2026,  Sunk costs: a framework for avoiding further spending on gas networks