Utility Week

28 | APRIL 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Operational Excellence Innovation in the face of challenges has marked the utilities sector's response to Covid-19 over the past year. Utility Week's Opera- tional Excellence hub seeks to highlight best practice in finding creative solutions to common problems. Here are some of the projects we have covered over the past month. Industrial decarbonisation projects awarded £171m The government has granted £33 million to the Cadent-backed HyNet North West project as part of a wider £171 million allocation for its industrial decarbonisa- tion strategy. The funds awarded from the UK Research and Innovation fund to HyNet North West will be topped up with £39 million from the members of the consortium backing the project, which includes Cadent. https://utilityweek.co.uk/industrial- decarbonisation-projects-awarded- 171m/ Thames customers report thousands of blockages via online tool Thousands of sewer blockages have been reported by customers of Thames Water using a new online tool, which the company launched in October. Report a Blockage Online allows residents to alert the water company to suspected blockages using an online form. It has been used to report 6,800 blockages, with 2,100 raised in February alone. https://utilityweek.co.uk/thames- customers-report-thousands-of-block- ages-via-online-tool/ Energy Systems Catapult adds smart EV charging to Living Lab Energy Systems Catapult is adding smart electric vehicle (EV) charging capabili- ties to its Living Lab of real-world smart homes. Cloud-based smart charging so–ware developed by ev.energy will be incorporated into its new digital integration platform allowing suppliers, aggregators and home technology provid- ers to trial new products and services in the 200 connected homes that now make up the lab and enabling networks to gain a better understanding of the impact on the power grid. https://utilityweek.co.uk/energy-sys- tems-catapult-adds-smart-ev-charg- ing-to-living-lab/ Op Ex Round-up Analysis A renko says using battery storage to provide reserve could save consumers as much £195 mil- lion a year, basing its claim on the results of a trial conducted last year by National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO). The company, which has developed an automated trading platform, approached the ESO to offer its assis- tance following National Grid's announcement in April that it was launching a downward flexibility service to help cope with the drop in demand resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. "Last March demand for power came down quite con- siderably because people weren't in their offices while the first lockdown happened – industry went quiet," says Arenko chief executive Rupert Newland. "That increased the proportion of renewables in the system and so suddenly the grid became much more volatile and much more fragile to imbalances, either in terms of additional power coming because there's lot of wind or because there's no wind and there wasn't enough power on the system." He said the ESO had to "scramble around" to make room on the system for the gas turbines typically used to provide reserve, launching the Optional Downward Flex- ibility Management service to "switch off renewables" and signing a deal with EDF to limit output from its Size- well B nuclear plant. "We said to them this is absolutely crackers," New- land tells Utility Week. "We've got batteries here today and we can provide that same service. The response was that batteries are limited duration, which is why we haven't procured them as reserve before." The ESO nevertheless worked with Arenko to design Tom Grimwood talks to Arenko about a recent ESO reserve trial the company claims shows that batteries could save millions of pounds as a standby resource. Battery trial saw big savings "We want to be up against everyone. We think one of the key benefits of this is that it drives competition in the industry." RUPERT NEWLAND, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ARENKO

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