Utility Week

Utility Week 2nd March 2018

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on the road to this radically different future. Smart meters, unsurprisingly, got plenty of a en on for their scope to disrupt the supplier-customer rela onship, and enable smarter network opera ons. A common thread running between all our nominated disrup ve technologies is their ability to contribute to decarbonisa on and the crea on of a more sustainable future. Arthur Mitchell, a manager at Strategy&, part of PwC, welcomes the consensus that low-carbon technology investment is the key to growth and business success for the long term. Far from seeing it as a limi ng factor, he says it is opening the door to "the most disrup ve period for the sector since priva sa on", and one which will be full of opportunity for those that align themselves with the new low-carbon and data-driven paradigm. 1. WHAT: ENERGY STORAGE What's the deal: Storage emerged as the most disrup ve technology cited in the survey by far, with ba ery storage gleaning the most air me. While lithium ion ba eries remain the technology of choice for most ba ery storage applica ons, other op ons such as flow ba eries and compressed air are figh ng to prove their worth. To help sort the wheat from the chaff in terms of the technologies with the most poten al for high value applica ons, the government is pouring in money, with £42 million commi ed in 2017 to the Faraday Ins tu on to support ba ery storage research and development. Why it ma ers: Energy storage is star ng to play a broader role in energy markets, moving from niche applica ons to mainstream interac on, with crucial grid balancing mechanisms and enabling greater reliance on renewable genera on. The technology is making its presence felt at every level in the energy market, with uptake steadily growing among consumers, industrial and commercial users and on the grid. And sensing the poten al for value crea on, investors are now crowding in to grab a slice of the ba ery storage pie, where just a few years ago they watched tenta vely from the sidelines, wai ng for the technology to reach maturity. Energy networks are arguably leading the way from a u li es perspec ve, in terms of suppor ng large-scale trials of various ba ery storage technologies to test their viability for smoothing supply and demand imbalances. But recent capacity auc ons have shown that ba ery operators also see a future for themselves in ensuring long- term security of supply – and at a compe ve cost to the consumer. Say what? "Using more electricity will be key in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Last year the European Academies Science Advisory Council found that advances in large-scale electricity storage are a priority, to manage our increasing dependence on renewable energies." Richard Catlow, foreign secretary of the Royal Society and professor at University College London "The pace of transi on to a low-carbon power system brings with it challenges for the Na onal Grid in balancing the network and ensuring supply and demand is matched on a second-by-second basis. Such balancing of supply and demand is only made possible by the introduc on of new technologies like ba ery storage." Nicholas Bea y, co-founder of ba ery firm BESS The technology is making its presence felt at every level in the energy market, with uptake steadily growing I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H UTILITY WEEK | 2ND - 8TH MARCH 2018 | 11 I N A S S O C I A T I O N W I T H

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