Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/736974
NETWORK / 21 / OCTOBER 2016 1 2 4 3 Electricity and heat ENW – launched Assessment of distributed generation behaviour during requency disturbances NGET – completed BioH2: Production of hydrogen by the gasifi cation of waste NGGD – completed Flexible residential energy effi ciency demand optimisation and management WPD & WWU - launched L O W C A R B O N 5 4 Electric vehicle emissions testing WPD – launched LV connect & manage WPD – launched ENW will investigate the potential for waste heat from air conditioning systems to be used to lower electricity demand. It will explore the feasibility of using the currently wasted heat to improve overall energy e - ciency and allow demand to be managed in a way that could derive bene t for a DNO and its customers. Following a feasibility study one unit will be installed at a trail site for monitoring. Western Power Distribution says EV manu- facturers are unwilling to share harmonic data on EVs currently in circulation in the UK. DNOs need this data to correctly assess connections, otherwise customers are at risk of increased network charges either due to conservative reinforcement requirements or widespread reactive reinforcement schemes to ensure the network remains within limits. EVs that meet the technical requirements will be approved for connection quicker. Vehicles should be compliant with har- monised EU standards, but various versions of the standard apply. If the lower thresh- olds of the standard are not met, approxi- mately 5% of UK domestic households would require reinforcement. This project will test EVs to cover all models on the market, at charging rates up to 32A. Testing will determine the level of harmonics and Š icker during charging and document the emissions conducted back on to the distribution network. This project is tackling the same issue as WPD' industrial and commercial storage (see page 19) but is exploring the feasibil- ity of using LV Active Network Management (ANM) technology as a viable alternative to network reinforcement. LV ANM extends communications and controls to customers' meters and is able to deal with bi-directional power Š ows, but it is unproven and needs to be trialled. The technology limits the power exported by heat pumps, energy storage and EVs to the network at times of LV network congestion or increasing the power demand to keep the network within technical limits. This project will demonstrate that LV ANM can be used as a short-term measure, or as a long-term alternative where rein- forcement is not economically viable. The trial of EVs and battery storage will encom- pass up to 50 customers each to understand the clustering e– ects of the technologies. The architecture for the solution will be developed, de ning the speci cation and location of monitoring, communications and control infrastructure. WPD says the solution could be rolled out on 32% of the countries LV network, with a nancial sav- ing of between £2,000-£3,300 per customer. This project set out to provide a comprehen- sive view of distributed generation types and susceptibility to Rate of Change of Fre- quency (RoCoF) for the entire synchronous network, along with the feasibility and implications of using revised protection set- tings. This will reduce operational costs and enable increased system access for wind and solar. Without such measures, increases in system operating costs by 2018/19 are fore- cast to be £250 million a year. The work will be used to inform the development of new requirements for Loss of Mains Protection Settings for small gen- erators connected to distribution networks, and may be of bene t to organisations out- side Great Britain responsible for or a– ected by islanding protection on distributed gen- eration, such as transmission companies, distribution companies and generators for example. It has been used to help scope similar assessments in Ireland where a programme Rate of Change of Frequency (RoCoF) related requirement setting and implementation is underway. Hydrogen has already been identi ed as a key future fuel, but sourcing the hydrogen is an issue. Alongside electrolysis and con- version from natural gas, another option is generation from biomass. This project will take the process used by National Grid Gas Distribution to take municipal waste and convert it to methane, and will simplify it to produce hydrogen. This o– ers the prospect of hydrogen produc- tion at parity with the cost of natural gas. Several barriers must be overcome. The commercial applications must be under- stood, the feasibility of the production process must be demonstrated, and then optimised, with designs produced, envi- ronmental impact understood and costs modelled. Then the chosen designs must be demonstrated at scale. This £5 million two-year project is a collabo- rative innovation project between gas and electricity companies investigating a multi- vector approach to the carbon reduction of energy usage in homes. It will explore the potential of hybrid heating systems. The technology can use either fuel, or both, for heating. A predictive control algo- rithm manages the heating load and fuel type to achieve the best cost and carbon outcome based on real-time energy mar- ket prices without requiring input from the consumer. The project will determine the technical potential and impacts for heat pumps to provide network services, look at the techni- cal and commercial barriers to implementa- tion, determine the potential bene t to asset owners and examine the possible commer- cial models for service provision, and exam- ine the necessary next steps in the wider deployment of heat pumps.