Utility Week

Operations & Assets 22 | 18TH - 24TH MAY 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Event Future Networks Conference 18 April, Birmingham Call to utilise spare capacity Delegates at the Future Networks Conference in Birmingham heard that an emphasis on whole-systems thinking could be the answer to congested electricity networks. Tom Grimwood was there. T he UK still has a long way to go to wean itself off fossil fuels. Speaking to a packed room at the Future Networks Conference in Birmingham – sponsored by Costain, Schneider Electric, Siemens and Burns McDonnell – Phil Taylor, the event chair, said the rapid growth of renewables can sometimes create a false sense of progress. "I do think we sometimes fool ourselves, myself included, that we're doing wonder- fully well because we've got to about 30 per cent on electricity," he explained. "But we've got to look at this and realise that there's a massive set of challenges le." While renewables now make up around a quarter of the generation mix, the UK still relies on fossil fuels for more than four-fihs of its total energy consumption. As the director of the National Centre for Energy Systems Integration, Taylor empha- sised the importance of whole-systems thinking to overcoming the addiction. Renewable generation has le many areas of the electricity network congested, "whereas we've got lots of spare capacity and capability in some of our other energy networks". He said one of the main focuses of energy networks should therefore be utilising this spare capacity through cross-vector trans- fers. The conversion losses can be over- looked when the alternative is paying to turn down zero marginal cost generation – essen- tially wasting free energy. Decarbonising the energy system will obviously require innovation – something networks haven't been known for in the past. Iliana Portugues, head of innovation at National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), questioned why they have gained a reputation for inertia when she has seen, and been part of, so much innovation throughout her own career. "Why, irrespective of all of the work we've done as an industry to inno- vate and drive technologies forward for the benefits of consumers, are we not considered innovative?" she pondered. Portugues identified the problem as being one of scope, listing three types of innova- tion: core, adjacent and transformative. She scrutinised NGET's innovation portfo- lio and found the vast majority (94 per cent) was focused on core operations – the "here and now" improvements, which deliver short-term benefits. The outcome is that they are "always reacting to the world around us. Reacting to a certain problem". "We do not control the technology," she added. "We are always innovating to fit the technological developments of others." Portugues said if networks can lead transformative technological developments, rather than just reacting to them, then they will not only be able to predict the future better but also be part of its creation. Power Potential project manager at National Grid, Biljana Stojkovska, described how the company is working with UK Power Networks to maintain voltage stability on the transmission network in the South East of England by creating a market for active and reactive power populated by distributed energy resources. Until now, there has only been a market for transmission-connected assets. Ali Reza Ahmadi, power systems develop- ment engineer at UK Power Networks, said it has already designed the distributed energy resource management system (DERMS) which will receive requests from National Grid, select the best response and send instructions to the relevant assets. UKPN is now building the system; the next stage is trials and testing. With a ban on the sale of petrol- and diesel-engined cars coming in 2040, one of the foremost challenges for electricity networks is how to accommodate a grow- ing number of electric vehicles on the grid, without driving up bills for consumers. As with the rollout of renewables, this means making the best use of the existing network. Mike Dale, innovation engineer at West- ern Power Distribution (WPD), said there is fortunately lots of spare capacity to play with, at least outside of peak hours. Dale said WPD's Electric Nation smart charging trial has found most electric vehi- cles are plugged in for far longer than they need to be. This means there is plenty of potential to shi demand away from peak hours, in particular towards the overnight period when the power grid is operating at a fraction of its full capacity. He said the trial had also found the pub- lic to be very accepting of smart charging, so long as it is explained to them properly. Dan Bentham, head of research and development for smart customers at EDF Energy, said while this may be true, consum- ers also want the ability to opt out of smart charging when it suits them. He said there needs to be a last resort mechanism in place to constrain electric vehicle charging in instances where the power grid is at risk of becoming overloaded. Scottish and Southern Electricity Net- works head of innovation and asset man- agement, Stewart Reid, said as electricity networks attempt to squeeze the most use out of their assets using smart and flexible solutions, they need to be aware of the risks they are taking on. He said the flexible operation of the power grid brings with it a number of new threats to resilience – from communica- tions breakdowns and smart tech failures to swings in customer behaviour and trading partners going bust. "There's a tipping point with investment in flexibility where you start to pay a price in terms of the resilience of the system," he explained. Further in the distance is the decarboni-

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