Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1057016
NETWORK / 17 / DECEMBER 2018 / JANUARY 2019 I The energy industry is going through major transformational change driven by the need to de- carbonise and enable the UK to hit its targets under the Climate Change Act 2008. Whilst the initial focus on meet - ing carbon budgets has been through the decarbonisation of power resulting in the closure of coal stations and decentralisa - tion of generation through the deployment of renewables; these actions in themselves will not achieve the targets. Other sectors who utilise energy must also decarbonise. The transport sector in the UK accounts for over a quarter of national Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions; 91.6 per cent of which are due to road trans - port1. Recent legislation has been implemented which means that by 2040 there will be no more sales of cars or light vans that rely on fossil fuels. This pol - icy change is already resulting in substantial changes to how the transport sector is consider- ing its infrastructure choice and local authorities are now driving strategy in public transport. The automotive industry is responding with new offerings. Hybrid and electric vehicle model ranges are being rapidly expanded and the energy retail sector is innovating with new packages being offered to vehi - cle users; whilst energy services such as the potential for vehicle to grid are starting to look like real possibilities. National Grid's Future Energy Scenarios predict somewhere in the order of 10m cars could be on the road with 5.0GW of INDUSTRY INSIGHT peak energy requirement2. The planned Hinkley C nuclear sta- tion is 3.2GW as a comparison. Therefore, this represents a con- siderable energy requirement to be accommodated in the energy infrastructure over and above current energy demand. At Costain, our consider - able experience of delivering infrastructure solutions in these sectors, across the full delivery supply chain from energy pro - duction, storage and distribu- tion, coupled with our capa- bilities of applying best practice and the latest technologies around digitisation and visu- alisation, means we can enable this transformation to happen. Our focus is on the application of current technologies and the investment in research, includ- ing sponsoring 21 PhD students, means we are constantly push- ing the boundaries to ensure that the UK's aspirations for meeting 2050 climate change targets are entirely possible. For example, we are working closely with one client, offering them a variety of technology solutions to improve operational effectiveness and asset reli - ability. Our UAV technologies are being utilised to identify high priority failure modes on their existing OHL network and we are utilising the concept of machine learning to proactively monitor their OHL network. Decarbonising transport The move to electrification of transport is not the answer to all transport segments. In 2015, 76 per cent of all goods were moved by road, with the remainder by water (15 per cent) and rail (nine per cent)3. The recent legislation does not apply to HGVs and the technologies available today make decar - bonisation of this segment not viable. Emerging technologies around fuel cells and hydrogen combustion are becoming more viable making multi-vector solu- tions possible where a mixture of electric and decarbonised Energy and transport integration Faye Banks (director of energy) and Phil Proctor (associate director – smart grid technologies) from Costain discuss meeting climate change targets through the integration of energy and transport sectors. Costain's integrated multi-vector solution. gas could be the answer. Other transport segments may also benefit from this approach including emergency service ve- hicles where range and charging times may be an issue. Costain's pioneering work, led by Highways England, is to transform journeys with innovative technology allow - ing vehicles and the roads to 'talk' to each other. A high-tech 'corridor' is being created on the A2/M2 in Kent to let specially- equipped test vehicles interact with roadside infrastructure in a move which promises safer, more reliable journeys and speedier maintenance, to reduce delays and carbon. The right infrastructure solutions to deliver on these challenges will need an inte - grated and optimised planning approach across the transport and energy sectors recognis- ing the full multi-vector energy supply chain. Considerations around minimising investment in capacity and reducing energy costs through optimising the use of energy resources are key to underpinning any viable solution. For more information, please contact Faye Banks and Phil Proc- tor: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ fayebanks15/ and https://www. linkedin.com/in/philproctor/ 1 D. Nicolaides, D. Cebon, and J. Miles, "Prospects for Electrification of Road Freight", https://www.repository.cam. ac.uk/bitstream/handle/1810/264646/ Final-version.pdf?sequence=1, 2017 2 National Grid FES 2018 Community Renewables 3 DfT, "Domestic Road Freight Statistics, United Kingdom 2016" Department for Transport, 2017