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UTILITY WEEK | 9TH - 15TH SEPTEMBER 2016 | 19 The hydroelectric plant is designed to ensure sufficient water passes over the weir and down the fish passes. Any surplus will be taken through the screws up to maximum flow rate of 13,500 litres per second. The 350kW scheme will be con- nected directly to the development through a private grid network. If you have an asset or project you would like to see featured in this slot, email: paul.newton@fav-house.com Pipe up Simon Harrison M ass vehicle electrification will have a disrup- tive effect on the electricity system. But now the disruptors are themselves being disrupted. Huge amounts of tech investment is going to firms such as Uber, not just to expand their taxi services, but to disrupt the entire £10 trillion a year global transport industry. This brings together several technologies and trends – autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and the sharing economy. The prize could be an entirely different way for us all to relate to mobility services, with much greater access to mobility for the young, elderly and disabled, reduced costs through high asset utilisation, massive freeing up of urban space used for parking, and major reductions in traffic congestion. So what could this mean for electricity utilities? We need to think through how such a vehicle fleet would get its energy. There would seem little need for widely distributed networks of charging points for individuals to plug in their cars. Instead one might imagine cars taking themselves off to a charging location when the price was right and traffic was light. Maybe supermarket or DIY store care parks could evolve to be part-time charging stations, or even spare land around electricity substations in the suburbs. Perhaps fleet operators would do deals with landlords with surplus underground car parks. The charging load could be concentrated at the multi MW level, and the timing of charging set by dynamic price signals under contracts between electricity suppliers and fleet operators. How fast will this happen? Could this model snow- ball like mobile phones, or will it remain the preserve of early adopters and those with limited mobility? How long will it take to perfect the autonomous car and the regulatory environment needed to surround it? Meanwhile the marketing and sale of conventional electric vehicles will continue, as will the demand for charging infrastructure to suit them – and the poten- tial network reinforcements that go with it. How many power network assets could end up stranded if this wave of transport disruption becomes a reality? In a strange way, the slower the pace of these developments, the worse it will be because more will have been invested in today's solution when the disruption finally happens. The regulatory challenge will also be significant, a lot of consumer-led and technology-led disruption can happen within a control period. Simon Harrison, group strategic development manager, Mott MacDonald "Huge amounts of investment is going to firms such as Uber to disrupt the entire global transport industry" "The prize could be an entirely different way for us all to relate to mobility services" Operations & Assets