The west coast town of Oban could influence the way the gas market operates throughout Britain in future.
Gas customers are being asked to take part in the pilot scheme testing three new types of gas on appliances.
Scottish Gas Networks (SGN) wants to prove to the government that new compositions of gas already used in Europe could be used in the UK.
Testing will begin in Oban on November 3, and will run until May 2015, during which time SGN hopes to visit every one of its 1,100 gas customers.
The first phase will begin in Glencruitten and should take five weeks.
In the past most of this country’s gas came from the North Sea. Today most is imported from other countries and is of a different composition.
Many gases are used safely and efficiently without processing in other parts of the EU and SGN believes if they can prove the gasses can work in Britain, national regulations could change.
Wider sources of gas means a more secure supply using greener gas.
Oban has been chosen for the project because the local network is not connected to the main gas network. That allows SGN to test in controlled isolation the different forms of gas.
Three types of natural gas will be tested on appliances in homes in Oban to see how they perform.
Jamie McAinsh, project manager, said: “What we are asking gas customers to do is allow us in to the property to examine their appliances and to test them on different compositions of gas. We are using gas engineers who are experts in this field.”
If the engineers find any faults or anything unsafe, they will fix it for free.
For the final stage SGN will use a mix of gas of a higher quality than already used and run it through the Oban network for one year.