In Iran, the imbalance in the supply and consumption of electricity and gas has challenged domestic and ‎industrial users and made the use of renewable energies inevitable. Given the unstable nature of ‎renewable energies, the use of hydrogen for energy storage is considered a vital step. However, this ‎issue must be analyzed according to the local requirements and supplies of each region. In this paper, a ‎scenario-based analysis based on energy and cost balance is presented to compare hydrogen (gray and ‎green) and natural gas for seasonal energy storage. The evaluation criteria include energy efficiency (by ‎calculating the required power plant capacity), carbon emissions, and investment cost. The results show ‎that the direct use of renewable electricity and, if necessary, energy storage in the form of natural gas, ‎eliminates the loss of energy value in the process of energy to hydrogen conversion, and require less ‎power plant capacity. This strategy requires 8.2 GW of capacity to address the summer imbalance ‎compared to 9.5 GW, and 39.3 GW of capacity to address the winter imbalance compared to 71.7 GW ‎in hydrogen-based scenarios. Meeting both imbalances requires 73.6 GW with hydrogen storage, and ‎‎43.3 GW with natural gas storage combined with direct renewable electricity. Despite the economic and ‎energy advantages of natural gas in the short term, the limited availability of fossil fuel resources and the ‎imperative need to move towards new energy storage technologies in the near future necessitate the ‎development of green hydrogen production systems.‎