Industry response to Greg Clark’s plans to unlock smart energy

Last week, business and energy secretary Greg Clark revealed the government’s plans to make a £246m investment in battery technology over the next four years. Here, Nick Boughton, sales manager at industrial systems integrator, Boulting Technology responds to the announcement.

The plans, which have been released by the government and Ofgem, will look to give households and businesses more control over their use of electricity and break down barriers preventing new technologies from entering the energy market.

Here at Boulting Group, we welcome the decision to transform the way homes and businesses store and use energy.

The National Grid delivers electricity to millions of people, businesses and communities across the country, however its role is changing. Although the nation has traditionally relied on large fossil fuel and nuclear power stations to supply electricity, many of these larger power stations are now being closed down. As a result, the supply mix has to evolve.

At present, over a quarter of the UK’s electricity is being generated by renewable sources such as wind and solar energy. However, one of the concerns with this method is that production is often at its highest when demand is lowest. This makes storage for energy generated this way a key priority to eliminate waste and harness its true production potential.

Using batteries to store renewable energy is by no means a new concept. However, batteries for this purpose are often big, expensive and have a limited lifespan. In these newly proposed plans, the government has committed to removing barriers to the introduction of new technology into the power network.

Continued advancements in battery power, including decreased costs, are vital for this form of energy storage being rolled out on a mass scale.

Over the coming months, we will be working alongside our clients and partners to explore the potential of battery technology in the industrial sector. Looking only a few years ahead, we envisage efficient battery storage being commonplace across industrial sites, office blocks and homes.

We look forward to seeing how the government and Ofgem’s plans unfold. 

The future of electricity

In the UK, the majority of electricity comes from large, centralised power plants. Although this approach enables economies of scale in the energy sector, it means that customers, particularly those within inner cities depend on long-distance transmission to receive power. Here Nick Boughton, sales manager at industrial systems integrator, Boulting Technology discusses how businesses need to adapt to keep up with increased energy demands.

In a bid to reduce energy costs and improve reliability, customers are turning to local energy generation — power that is generated in underutilised spaces such as rooftops, landfills and empty car parks.

Local energy generation reduces costs and improves the overall efficiency of the power system. It minimises line losses and extends the lifespan of existing transmission infrastructure by minimising wear from overuse. It also creates a stronger, more resilient network of power in the face of extreme weather, human error and outsider attacks.

The benefits of local energy generation are clear for home owners, but commercial and industrial properties are also starting to explore the alternatives to the national grid.

The microgrid is a localised group of electricity sources and loads that normally operate as part of the national grid, but can disconnect and function autonomously if necessary.

These types of grids are maturing quickly within the commercial and industrial sectors in North America and Asia Pacific, but lack of standards limit them on a global scale. Having these standards in place would mean that manufacturers could access a more secure supply, avoiding regular power interruptions that can cause high revenue losses and long periods of downtime.

Renewables

Renewable sources currently produce more than 20 per cent of the UK's electricity and targets set by the European Union mean that this is likely to rise to 30 per cent by 2020.

Countries in Europe are building increasing amounts of renewable capacity in order to reduce their carbon emissions and boost supply security. Last year, Denmark’s wind farms supplied 140 per cent of the country's demand and Germany received all of its power from renewable energy sources for an entire day. While these were planned events, in May 2016, the UK hit the headlines as it had no coal-fired power stations meeting electricity demand for a short space of time as a result of the partial failure of a power import cable. It is events like this that highlight the eventual need for a more long-term market supply.

In 2017, the Scottish government bid to cut total climate emissions by 66 per cent within 15 years. This is one of the world's most ambitious climate strategies and is expected to cost up to £3 billion per year to implement. To cut emissions, the Scottish government has released a renewable energy programme, which includes targets of 40 per cent of all new cars sold in Scotland to be ultra-low emission and 80 per cent of Scotland's homes to be heated using low-carbon technologies.

Currently, solar energy is limited to daylight hours and wind power cannot be harvested all year round. The only way to guarantee a 24-hour renewable supply is to have a method of storage.

Leveraging car and mobile phone developments, modern battery storage systems will soon be used to store renewable energy. In just a few years' time, battery storage will be commonplace not just at grid level, but on industrial sites, office blocks and in the home too.

Energy supplies – a new paradigm?

In May 2016, Portugal ditched fossil fuels and ran solely on renewable energy for four consecutive days. Solar, wind and hydroelectric power exclusively covered the electricity consumption of the entire country for a whopping 107 hours in total. The feat is the latest of many renewable energy success stories and highlights the growing role renewables play in modern energy generation.

Here, Nick Boughton, sales manager of industrial systems integrator Boulting Technology, discusses how emerging technologies can provide a new answer to an old question: renewables are great, but what happens if it’s not sunny or windy?

Electricity derived from fossil fuels and nuclear has traditionally been a reliable option for keeping the lights on. However, in recent years, advancements in three areas have the potential to make renewable energy a much bigger player on the power generation scene.

Microgeneration

The role of the National Grid is changing. Traditionally, it relied on a few very large fossil fuel and nuclear power stations to supply electricity. Put simply, the grid received large input from a few sources dotted around the country. Today, as these larger power stations are being closed down, due to age or inability to meet forthcoming emission regulations, the supply mix is changing.

The grid still gets electricity from traditional power plants, but it increasingly receives power from many smaller-scale wind, solar and anaerobic digestion plants as well.

Earlier this year, as part of its target to self generate one third of its electricity requirements by 2020, Thames Water unveiled Europe's largest floating solar farm on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir at Walton-on-Thames. With more than 23,000 solar panels covering an area equivalent to eight football pitches, its peak output is 6.3MW and its projected annual output of 5.8 million kilowatt hours is enough to power 1,800 average homes.

While this is a significant contribution, it would take more than 600 similar sized solar farms to match Drax. With an output of 4,000MW, the UK's largest coal and biomass fuelled power station takes some beating. Drax does have the advantage of running day and night, seven days a week though.

Demand-side response

The main role of the National Grid is to ensure electricity supply meets the demand, known as balancing the grid. This brings us on to demand-side response.

Once upon a time, the National Grid had to rely mainly on supply side response – getting power generators to match demand. Demand-side response is a technology where customers are incentivized financially by the Government to lower or shift their electricity use at peak hours.

In a sign of the times, the biggest electricity user in London — or the Tube to you and I — recently announced it is signing up to a demand-side response network. This means when demand on the grid is at its peak, London Underground will use its back-up power supplies to ease strain on the grid.

There is still huge potential for demand-side response. Instead of merely sending signals to customers when they need to take action, automated processes could be put in place, by the grid or more locally, to trigger back-up power or turn off non-critical applications automatically.

In industrial power management environments, the same principle can be applied by using smart low voltage switchgear, such as the Boulting Power Centre. This means any building — industrial or commercial — can prioritise the order in which the switchgear turns off connections, if at all, and for how long.

Batteries

One of the concerns with solar and wind energy is that production is often at its highest, when demand is lowest. Therefore, storage is a key priority for eliminating waste and harnessing production potential. Battery storage isn’t new, but until fairly recently, batteries were big, heavy, expensive and had a limited lifespan.

Leveraging car and mobile phone developments, modern battery storage systems offer a much more attractive proposition. Looking only a few years ahead, battery storage will be commonplace not just at grid level, but on industrial sites, office blocks and domestically. The Tesla Powerwall is an example of an innovative solution applicable to most homes.

With viable and scalable battery storage options and demand side response, renewables and microgeneration can join the top table of electricity generation, previously dominated by nuclear and fossil fuels sources. With this kind of progress, it’s not too hard to imagine Portugal’s 107 hours being beaten quite soon!