The aim of the app is to enable users to optimise how and when energy is used around their homes, integrating smart devices, such as electric vehicle charge points and solar panels, regardless of their brand.

“There’s a lot of clever technology out there that helps people manage the energy in their homes but, incredibly, there’s nothing in the UK that works with different brands and devices, meaning people can’t currently control all the energy devices across their home in one place,” said Swarm Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer Anthony Piggott.

“We knew we could create something to change this and with [Opencast’s] tech expertise and our knowledge of the energy sector, we have the ability to make something really exciting: one app to control every aspect of energy in the home.”

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Demonstration and testing of the new app are set to take place in a purpose-built energy hub at the Hoults Yard business village in Newcastle, where the two companies are based, with the first iteration planned for launch in autumn 2023.

Growing UK consumer interest in green innovations

The availability of such apps as Swarm’s would appear to be timely, with a new survey from McKinsey & Company of more than 2,000 consumers revealing a soaring demand for green energy innovations to curb high energy prices and reduce household bills.

McKinsey reports that as wholesale prices have started to fall enabling retailers to offer lower prices the incentive to switch suppliers, after record low levels, has increased and a third of consumers are considering switching, while almost half are willing to adopt some form of time-of-use tariffs.

Further, a quarter are also willing to buy additional green products and services from energy retailers such as energy management services, solar panels, electric vehicle chargers and heat pumps.

With this suppliers also have the opportunity to attract more customers and diversify their offerings by curbing costs, simplifying processes and boosting public awareness of new energy products and services, McKinsey indicates.

Kiril Bliznakov, Senior Partner at McKinsey, says the survey findings point to the driving of a more competitive market where low cost and low carbon tariffs, products and services will be the key differentiators of the future.

“The ‘gamification’ of energy services and rising demand for energy-as-a-service offerings will create new opportunities for suppliers to increase long-term customer loyalty and to both decarbonise and cut household bills.”
 

“Europe will do whatever it takes to keep its competitive edge.”

So said von der Leyen during her 2023 State of the European Union (SOTEU) address, announcing the EVs inquiry as one of two inititiatives to do just that, the other being a support package for the Union’s wind sector.

State of the EU

Referring to the importance of the European Green Deal at the start of her term in 2019, von der Leyen led her State of the Union address with the importance of the energy sector in enhancing Europe’s position as a competitive global player.

“Four years ago, the European Green Deal was our answer to the call of history and this summer, the hottest ever on record, was a stark reminder of that.”

Referencing the extreme wildfires and flooding experienced this year in Greece and Spain, as well as chaotic extreme weather in Bulgaria and other member states, von der Leyen emphasised how, although much has been done towards net zero, “our work is far from over.

“This is the reality of a boiling planet. The European Green Deal was born out of this necessity to protect our planet, but it was also designed as an opportunity to preserve our future prosperity.”

EV inquiry

This initiative, placing Europe again on the map against global energy competition majors such as the US and China, has been in the works through 2023 via tabled policies such as the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act.

However, although placing Europe on the map as a leading energy player will be key, von der Leyen also cautioned against isolating competitors:

“Our industries and technology companies like competition. They know that global competition is good for business and that it creates and protects jobs here in Europe. But competition is only good as long as it is fair.”

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Hence, the investigation into imported electric vehicles (EVs):

“Take the EV sector. It is a crucial industry for the clean economy with a huge potential in Europe, but global markets are now flooded with cheaper Chinese electric cars; their prices kept artificially low by huge state subsidies.

“This is distorting our market and as we do not accept this distortion from the inside of our market, we do not accept this from the outside.

“I can announce today that the Commission is launching an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China (…) Europe is open to competition, but not for a race to the bottom.”

This, adds von der Leyen, is part of a strategy to “de-risk, not decouple” trade practices in the EU, a way to boost the Union’s competitiveness while retaining beneficial relations.

According to Reuters reportage, one of many reactions to the announcement of the EVs inquiry was from Sigrid De Vries, head of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), who commented on how “China’s apparent advantage and cost-competitive imports are already impacting European auto makers’ domestic market share, with a massive surge in electric vehicle imports in recent years.

“Von der Leyen’s announcement is a positive signal that the European Commission is recognising the increasingly asymmetric situation our industry is faced with, and is giving urgent consideration to distorted competition in our sector.”

Also commenting was Germany’s VDA Automotive Industry Assocation, which cautioned how “damage must be causally quantifiable and the community interest must be taken into account. Possible backlash from China must also be taken into account.

“One thing is clear: an anti-subsidy investigation alone will not help to solve the existing challenges with regard to the competitiveness of the European landscape. Policymakers in Brussels and Berlin must create the framework conditions to ensure that the transformation succeeds.”

The other initiative is focused on the wind sector, which has been “facing a unique mix of challenges and this is why we will put forward a European wind power package, working closely with industry and member states.”

The package, according to von der Leyen, will go towards fast-tracking permitting, improving the Union’s auction systems, boosting skills and supply chains and enabling eased access to finance.

While the full visual design has not yet been made public, ‘New Energies’ is described as a multi-functional system aimed to make the most of the natural elements – sun, light, wind and rain – and combining energy efficiency with an optimal balance between the investments and the economic, environmental and social benefits.

In this way it is intended to be versatile and to meet the need to modernise the electrical infrastructure with a sustainable footprint throughout its lifecycle.

Features include rooftop solar panels, a porous floor that lets in rainwater and prevents the formation of heat islands and a wave fence with a modular grid design that lets in light and wind.

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In addition, plants will be grown all around the substation with the adoption of the Miyawaki method, which involves the dense planting of fast growing smaller native species under taller trees.

The primary goal of the challenge was to create a sustainable modular architecture for primary substations, with a high level of versatility and replicability and optimisation of the space.

A key goal was that the infrastructure needs to blend in with the environment, with an innovative design combining safety with flexibility and with improved visual, functional and spatial impact.

The challenge attracted 36 entries from engineers, academia, designers and architecture and construction companies from 16 countries, and was adjudged by a similarly multi-disciplinary panel.

Other proposals that were awarded special prizes and will be implemented in existing facilities were from the Rome-based architecture practice NEXT Urban Solutions in collaboration with the visual artist Filippo Riniolo, by architects Andrea Bautista and Jessica García Huachez and from the Milan design practice Vittorio Grassi Architects.

Enel states that the primary substation design challenge forms part of a larger process that Enel Grids has set in motion aimed at modernising and redesigning the key elements of the distribution networks.

Earlier redesigns have focussed on the design and structure of meters, street cabinets, secondary substations and power line supports and the next step is on the larger and more complex infrastructure.

The approximately 30 different challenges launched over the last two years have led to hundreds of proposals based on more circular practices “to increase grid automation and digitalisation, deliver state-of-the-art solutions that ensure safety and productivity in field operations and reduce the environmental and economic impact of building new facilities, with a special focus on biodiversity and harmonious integration with the local environment and thereby eliminate the carbon footprint of the grids”, the company states.

The study, aimed to investigate the impact of the large-scale integration of hydrogen electrolysers to the grid, points to hydrogen as complementary to electrification for decarbonisation targets rather than a target in itself, with the first applications likely to be for substituting grey hydrogen in present industrial processes.

However, electrolysers will progressively become an additional system element, which implies that it should be planned and operated synergically with the rest of the energy system.

The report identifies four key issues, i.e. the relationship between supply and demand, the use cases and their impact on the grids, flexibility and the impact on system planning.

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As a new system component, the recognition of green hydrogen requires an ad-hoc scheme, valid across jurisdictions, for the infeed electricity encompassing the additionality principle, in order to avoid double counting and greenwashing as well as cannibalisation of other decarbonisation processes.

In addition, there needs to be both geographical and time correlation to ensure the utilised renewable energies are not impaired by grid congestion.

At the grid operation level, in order to better exploit the variability of renewable energies, the flexible operation of the power system requires to decouple as much as possible the profiles of green hydrogen production from hydrogen consumption.

This means having enough storage elements both in the power system and in the hydrogen system.

With this, the hydrogen system also can provide long-term flexibility, through storage of excess renewables in gas reservoirs, as well as adequacy support.

Short-term flexibility services also are possible via demand response and balancing from electrolysers.

In terms of planning hydrogen projects should be designed and assessed starting from the end use case, volumes and costs, not from the supply side, which must follow the needs of the end user.

From the energy system point of view, the deployment pace of electrolysers should match the increase of the large amount of additional renewables volumes required for producing green hydrogen, in order not to cannibalise other decarbonisation processes.

Other infrastructure, such as pipelines and storage facilities, also need to be coordinated with grid developments as well as end user needs.

The report also notes ‘hydrogen valleys’ as a promising configuration for starting the development of comprehensive use cases.

In conclusion, the report highlights the need for a ‘one system’ view, noting that the viability of hydrogen projects is both case and country-dependent.

Win-win solutions matching business needs with system requirements must be found in order to maximise the benefits for all stakeholders.

For a smooth but fast transition phase, repurposing the gas grid, also through initial blending, is suggested as a viable and smart option to enable a gradual phase-out of natural gas and set-up of a hydrogen market.

With grid connection lead times a key issue in accelerating the scale up of renewables, top factors identified include the pre-occupied capacity of the grid although not yet physically congested, permitting, materials shortages and poor qualification of plant connection technical project designers and errors in the projects.

This comes with the majority of survey respondents stating that connection times do not match the expectations of customers or government, although just over half say they do match the expectation of their DSO.

The grids in Europe, as they are elsewhere, are being challenged with the rapid scale up of renewables. Further the pressure is expected to increase with the increased demand of electrification.

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This is projected to require a five-fold upswing in intermittent generation by 2050.

With the two main technical challenges of network inadequacy and instability, it is the time for grid operators and policymakers to rethink current planning, connection and operation processes as well as to take responsibility for coordinating among energy system stakeholders to construct a future-proof 21st century power grid, states E.DSO in the report, which was prepared in collaboration with McKinsey.

Based on measures taken by DSOs and other input to address these issues, the report sets out recommendations to support the connection of more renewables to the existing grids and to minimise their connection lead times.

Number one is to reduce the permitting times, mainly through automation and digitalisation.

There should be transparent, and ideally EU-harmonised, rules for congestion management to facilitate the use of non-firm connections and transparent rules for handling connection queues, improving information to the client and minimizing the possibility of litigation. .

On technical skills, improvement should be supported, for instance by setting up an online or ‘in person’ training to certify the skills and knowledge necessary to carry out grid connection processes and education programmes should be promoted.

For grid management and planning the use of non-firm connections should be evaluated and reactive power management should be introduced.

Renewables advanced functionalities recommended include the implementation of droop control and digitalisation of the renewable connection.

In addition, smart grid control and ADMS should be leveraged to achieve integrated and real-time observability and control for the entire distribution network and smart inverter functions used at LV level to facilitate grid management and, in turn, possibly enable additional DERs connection.

In a new study on the region’s electricity market design, Eurelectric states that with around 70% of the planned new renewable capacity being connected to the distribution grids, these require reinforcement and expansion.

But for efficient and timely connection, the way the grids are developed needs to change from an essentially reactive approach to a ‘build-for-the-future’ approach that includes inter alia anticipatory investments.

“Getting our electricity networks fit for net zero should be a top priority in the coming years, both at EU and national level,” says Kristian Ruby, Secretary General of Eurelectric.

“This requires a new mindset among regulators and legislators. One that anticipates Europe’s capacity needs to integrate more renewable projects, and one that accommodates unprecedented electrification of transport, buildings and industry to match the speed and scale needed for Europe’s energy transition.”

The REPowerEU plan anticipates around 50 to 60 million heat pumps, 65 to 70 million electric vehicles (EVs) and over 600GW of additional renewable capacity by 2030.

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A scarcity of grid capacity translates into longer waits for connections, more congested areas and higher costs for network users.

In its earlier ‘Decarbonisation Speedways’ study, Eurelectric found that the EU currently invests €23 billion (US$25 billion) per year in grid infrastructure. However, the investment in distribution grids should reach no less than €38 billion per year until 2030 and up to €100 billion per year until 2050 to deliver on the decarbonisation’s agenda.

Eurelectric proposes in its report that the distribution networks should be planned at least 5 years ahead, with the option of reaching 10 years and with a 2050 horizon projection.

Further regulators must be flexible on DSO investment instruments, removing regulatory obstacles and adopting output-based remuneration taking into account both capex and opex.

EU policies and funds also must promote investments in the physical dimensioning of the grids. In this connection, dynamic line rating is one of the basic means to expand capacity.

Likewise, significant digitalisation efforts are needed and should be incentivised for grid management and forecasting and flexibility should be promoted, with local production and consumption stimulated.

A key for infrastructure development is permitting and Eurelectric urges for a “dedicated and permanently simplified procedure” for grid development, including a possible ‘one-stop-shop’ concept for a single permit for a generation project and the associated grid expansion.

Underlying much of these actions is the need for accurate information and Eurelectric calls for “robust data-sharing mechanisms” among the various players.

Backed by Innovate UK, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and government teams in India, and delivered by Energy Systems Catapult in partnership with the Indian Institute for Science (IISc), ITES will support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to test, fund and fast-track their innovations to market that help decarbonise transport in India and the UK.

ITES will offer a ‘soft-landing’ for the SMEs, helping to safely develop, test and export solutions that help decarbonise transport. The collaboration will also help SMEs tackle scalability with go-to-market support and access to potential clients, funders and investment.

This first cohort of 20 UK-based SMEs includes teams in the fields of intelligent electricity system services, battery management, charging systems, energy storage, fleet optimisation, hydrogen and rail.

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The different working areas and their respective SMEs include:

Intelligent electricity system Services

• Flock Energy, which uses machine learning to transform energy usage in factories and help them digitalise their operations. The company has developed proprietary algorithms that optimise energy consumption, improving efficiency and productivity.
  
• Terranow, which uses the potential of generative AI to unlock optimal efficiency in the generation and use of energy through focused solutions for forecasting, control and coordination.

Battery recycling and management

• Aceleron Energy, which develops advanced lithium batteries, aiming to accelerate the global shift to cleaner, more renewable energy and to drive sustainable battery technology.
  
• Faraday Battery Limited, which manufactures battery-packs up to 1MW scale for electric vehicles, including tractors, vans, buses and trucks. vehicle, it significantly reduces the lifecycle cost of the electric bus/truck.
  
• Nexmu, which focuses primarily on electric mobility and energy storage. The Nexmu team has integrated its battery management system and related capabilities in the electric powertrain into a single cloud-based platform.

Charging systems

• char.gy, which manufactures amd operatres charging infrastructure, funding, installing, operating and maintaining EV charge points for private landlords and local authorities for their residents who do not have off-street parking.
  
• Entrust Microgrid, chich specialises in smart microgrid systems that maximise user benefits from embedded solar PV, energy storage system, EV charger and other smart energy appliances, and provide the grid with flexibility.
  
• Petalite, which is a second-generation EV charging company that aims to solve the challenges impeding the roll-out of EV charging infrastructure.
  
• [ui!]uk urban integrated ltd, which is an IT consultancy advising local authorities, cities and metropolitan regions in their strategic planning and in the implementation and operation of smart city infrastructures and e-mobility solutions, such as charge point management systems and mobility service provider apps.
  
• Vertical Solar, which is a renewables developer aiming to bring to market new products that remove the traditional constraints associated with solar deployments.
  
• Voltempo, which develops ultra-high power EV charging hubs for heavy vehicle fleets and public service stations.

Energy storage and delivery

• Energineering LTD, which is a consultancy in the realm of industrial energy efficiency and project development. The last five years have seen the team concentrate on developing innovative energy storage solutions, including its patented MECHAPRES system, which uses a combination of reversible heat pumping and Composite Phase Change Material, latent thermal storage to support the needs of decentralised microgrids and DC EV Charging stations.
  
• LiNa Energy, which is developing and commercialising low-cost, solid-state sodium batteries as a safer, more sustainable alternative to lithium-ion. LiNa’s innovation is based on a novel sodium-metal-chloride planar cell, which they state unlocks the high power/energy density potential of established sodium battery chemistry.
  
• PowerUp, which provides an Energy as a Service model, replacing fossil fuel generators with battery PowerStations, using AI algorithms to predict battery behaviours and facilitate just-in-time swapping with renewable energy-charged replacements.

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Fleet optimisation

• Flexible Power Systems, which aims to address the increased complexity, risks and cost arising from EV adoption.
  
  The company’s platform provides automated EV fleet and charger management for van, bus, truck or mixed fleets that integrates data from across the business for a view of fleet operations. Part of what this enables, states the company, is the management of power constraints to avoid expensive grid upgrades.

Rail

• Riding Sunbeams, which decarbonises rail traction networks through the development and connection of unsubsidised, direct-wire renewable energy supply.
  
  Riding Sunbeams is now working to develop and demonstrate the required technology to connect solar power and line-side energy storage to feed the Alternating-Current (AC), overhead line railways that make up most of the world’s electrified rail networks.

Hydrogen

• AqSorption, which builds renewable energy systems, concentrating on biogas and combined heat and power plants. Following a series of enhancements to its gasification technology, AqSorption has successfully adapted to move into production of hydrogen.
  
  
• Innervated Vehicle Engineering (IVe), which transforms diesel vans into hydrogen fuel cell vans, offering an alternative to diesel.
  
  
• JET Engineering Services, which works with and on behalf of customers to deliver solutions to technical engineering problems. Following a recent contract award to deliver a hydrogen production system on the subcontinent, and changing priorities in global markets, the company took a strategic decision to redirect its efforts into the green hydrogen sector, and has embarked on a programme to develop a range of projects and products to support this.
  
  
• Logan Energy, which specialises in the delivery of integrated engineering solutions incorporating hydrogen technologies for production through to refuelling.
  
  The team offers a full turnkey service, from project inception & feasibility, design development, manufacturing, installation, and operation and maintenance.
  
  Logan Energy has designed, built, and installed hydrogen production and refuelling stations, and are currently constructing further stations for buses, vans, passenger vehicles, and heavy-duty vehicles.

The 20 SMEs will have access to a range of acceleration support – from start-up mentoring and incubation services, to market research and real-world pilots with Indian businesses that help prove new products on the ground.

Paul Jordan, business leader for innovator support & international at Energy Systems Catapult, commented: “It’s a real pleasure to announce such a strong cohort of SMEs to join us at the start of this major innovation initiative between the UK and India.

“They represent some of the highest-priority innovations needed to tackle transport decarbonisation – from cutting-edge hydrogen, rail, and fleet solutions, to battery storage and management, and other technologies and services that can enable an electric vehicle-ready infrastructure.

“By helping these UK innovators to collaborate, commercialise and trial their solutions in the world’s fifth biggest economy, we hope to both turbocharge decarbonisation efforts and help unleash the economic potential that innovation offers.”

The Innovating for Transport and Energy Systems initiative was launched in May this year.

This was the key message from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Director-General Francesco La Camera to mark an agreement signed with the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) in support of Africa’s energy goals.

The agreement was signed on Monday, 4 September on the margins of Africa Climate Week in Nairobi.

IRENA said the agreement is geared toward assisting the continent “in their efforts to achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”

“Acknowledging that 80% of the global population without access to electricity resides in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is evident that the existing energy infrastructure cannot adequately meet the continent’s needs,” said La Camera.

But this would require the creation of a more equitable energy system, he said.

AUDA-NEPAD CEO Nardos Bekele-Thomas underscored the findings of the Continental Power Systems Masterplan (CMP), designed to provide a strategic roadmap for connecting Africa’s five power pools.

The CMP emphasises the critical need for immediate and proactive measures in Africa’s electricity sector.

“The current business as usual trajectory falls significantly short of achieving universal electricity access by 2040, necessitating a substantial increase in investments to elevate the continent’s installed capacity from 266GW to approximately 1,218GW,” said Bekele-Thomas.

“To realise this ambitious target, an estimated $1.29 trillion in cumulative investments will be essential, potentially culminating in the establishment of a robust continental electricity market valued at $136 billion by 2040. It is imperative to take urgent and strategic actions to accomplish these transformative goals.”

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Planning towards an integrated electricity network in Africa

IRENA said the continued investments in cross-border transmission infrastructure and a deepening of electricity trade will allow African countries to accelerate their energy expansion and transition.

This could be achieved by sourcing electricity from a wide range of competitive, clean energy resources and by anchoring on the continent’s five power pools to create Africa’s Single Electricity Market.

Since 2021, IRENA, in partnership with other organisations, has supported AUDA-NEPAD and African stakeholders in developing the CMP through modelling activities and a series of capacity-building activities related to energy planning in the region. 

The CMP aims to establish a long-term, continent-wide planning process for power generation and transmission that involves all five African power pools. It maps out how to best to utilise the vast renewable energy resources across the continent, supporting national power strategies that consider cross-border interconnections as a vital component.

The next phase of CMP will include a special focus on strengthening the planning processes and accelerating the preparation of a bankable pipeline of priority projects at both the regional and country levels. 

“This brings an opportunity for African countries to align their energy planning processes to a pan-Africa vision and accelerate the realisation of Agenda 2063,” said IRENA.

“Through this new partnership, IRENA and AUDA-NEPAD will work to enhance the capabilities of African countries and regional organisations through knowledge-based capacity building services, support implementation of the renewable energy projects in the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA PAP II) and facilitate access for project developers to IRENA’s Climate Investment Platform and Energy Transition Accelerator Financing (ETAF) platform.”

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI Africa.

The Dutch companies are calling it the first ‘capacity restriction’ contract, which will see Eneco gear electricity supply from a wind project in Farmsum to meet the load on the power grid, a technique to avoid peak demand periods known as congestion management.

During peak moments, Eneco will temporarily reduce the production of this wind energy and Enexis will pay a fee.

The wind farm in question is Farmsum, located in the Dutch province of Groningen, which is connected to one of Enexis’s medium-voltage stations in Weiwerd.

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The station’s power grid, states Eneco, has virtually no room left for more capacity and through the contract Eneco will make the wind farm available to produce less electricity during peak moments, freeing up room on the grid.

This is the first time either Enexis or Eneco has concluded this type of contract, which has been signed at a time in the Netherlands when increasingly flexible means of managing consumption are being used to balance an at-capacity grid.

The wind farm has a total capacity of approximately 25MW; Eneco will make 10MW of flexible capacity available to Enexis to open grid capacity for connecting roughly 30,000 solar panels.

The contract takes effect on 1 September 2023. The contract has no fixed end date; it will remain in place until the local power grid has been upgraded.

Commenting on the contract in a release was Lucien Wiegers, director of Eneco’s trading division EET, who stated: “We are pleased to have secured this first deal with Enexis, and we expect to sign several more of these contracts, not only for our own wind and solar farms, but also for farms that we manage for others.”

Added Karin Mathijssen, director of large business customers at Enexis: “We are transitioning to an energy system where these types of flexible contracts are becoming increasingly important. At the same time, this is a new concept – not only for us, but also for our customers.

“I am confident that we will sign more of these types of contracts in the near future. To serve as many of the customers on the waiting list as possible, Enexis will continue to look for parties that can supply flexible capacity and that follow Eneco’s excellent example.

Electrification and renewables top McKinsey’s tech trends

McKinsey’s Technology Trends Outlook 2023 report has electrification and renewables as the largest of the 15 trends identified in terms of interest and investment.

The survey finds there was a $288 billion equity investment in the area in 2022 and a 27% increase in job postings over the previous year, which is also among the largest recorded for all the trends.

Alongside this climate tech beyond electrification and renewables, such as carbon capture, attracted less interest, with $86 billion equity investment and a modest 8% increase in job postings.

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Other tech trends identified include applied AI, which tops the innovation axis, next-gen software development, cloud and edge computing and web3, these and others are all identical to the previous year.

Except for the one new entrant to the line-up, namely generative AI. McKinsey records generative AI as representing the next frontier for AI and also attributes to providing much of the credit for an observed resurgence of enthusiasm in the first half of 2023 about technology’s potential to catalyse progress in business and society after a tumultuous 2022.

Building upon existing technologies such as applied AI and industrialising machine learning, generative AI has high potential and applicability across most industries, states McKinsey.

Interest in the topic, as gauged by news and internet searches, increased threefold from 2021 to 2022 and generative AI is poised to add as much as $4.4 trillion in economic value from use cases that increase productivity.

DEWA innovates on battery performance

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)’s Research and Development (R&D) Centre has filed a new patent for an innovation for improving the performance of electrodes in lithium-ion batteries, sodium–sulphur batteries and electrolyte distribution batteries.

This, a low-cost, environmentally friendly method, is achieved by treating the electrodes chemically using a polymer to increase the number of active groups on the surface of the electrodes, which leads to improving their performance.

The patent supports the pilot project for energy storage that DEWA has inaugurated at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park using Tesla’s lithium-ion battery solution. The project has a power capacity of 1.21MW and an energy capacity of 8.61MWh with a life span of up to 10 years.

“DEWA relies on research and innovation to support the development of energy storage technologies and increase the share of clean and renewable energy,” says HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD and CEO of DEWA.

“This supports the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and the Dubai Net Zero Carbon Emissions Strategy 2050 to provide 100% of Dubai’s total power production capacity from clean energy sources by 2050.”

This pilot project is the second battery energy storage pilot project by DEWA at the solar park. The first project was implemented in collaboration with AMPLEX–NGK to install and test a sodium sulphur energy solution with a power capacity of 1.2MW and an energy capacity of 7.5MWh.

Solar table for gardens

German solar technology innovator Technaxx is launching its latest product – a solar table for householders to place in gardens or on balconies or terraces and which can double both as a table and a solar power generator.

The table, which is approximately 173cmx114cm in size and can seat up to eight people, has a fold-up top that can be adjusted to set angles up to 35o to maximise the solar generation capacity and produce up to 410W peak power.

With it is a pre-assembled micro inverter, which converts the generated solar power into AC and can be easily plugged into a household socket to supply power to the home.

The implementation plan is comprised of 19 ‘priority project concepts’ (PPC) that should be delivered in the period starting in 2024 as well as a further 13 PPCs that should get underway in the following year.

These PPCs, which are categorised under the previously established ‘high-level use cases’, are considered as “families of projects”. They are not intended as specifically defined individual projects, that would be the task of project funding applicants.

The implementation plan is intended to detail the most urgent R&I needs that should to be tackled through the European Commission and national work programmes within the period towards delivering the 2050 neutral carbon energy system.

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With extensive electrification combined with significant energy efficiency improvements and CO2 reductions in all sectors, this will require inter alia the massive use of renewables and smart grids technologies as well as sector coupling of all energy carriers via storage and conversion technologies.

The PPCs for 2025+ are as follows:

HLUC 1 – Optimal cross sector integration and grid scale storage

• Integrating hydrogen and CO2-neutral gases
• Regulatory framework for cross sector integration.

HLUC 2 – Market-driven TSO-DSO-system user interactions

• Develop a digital twin of the European electricity grid
• Viable business cases through market mechanisms and incentives
• Governance for TSO, DSO and system users.

HLUC 3 – Pan European Wholesale Markets, Regional and Local Markets

• Validation of new market concepts.

HLUC 4 – Massive RES penetration into the transmission and distribution grid

• Well-functioning markets for a RES based energy system
• Policies and governance for a RES based energy system.

HLUC 5 – One stop shop and digital technologies for market participation of consumers (citizens) at the centre

• Data spaces
• Building skills needed for developers and users of the energy system to accelerate its transition through its digitalisation
• Service management and operations
• Sharing IT infrastructure investments.

HLUC 7 – Enhance system supervision and control including cybersecurity

• Grid operator of the future
• Grid field workforce of the future
• Human machine interface
• Cybersecurity of energy networks.

HLUC 8 – Transportation integration and storage

• Integrated planning of energy and transport sectors
• Adapting policy and market for seamless cost-effective merging of transport and energy sectors.

The implementation plan gives a description of each of the priority project concepts and their budgetary requirements.

Three further R&I Implementation plans are planned to cover all the time periods until 2030.

The two new centres are a Renewable Energy Forecast Centre and a Demand Response Control Centre, both situated within EGAT’s headquarters in Nonthaburi, close to Bangkok.

They also are intended as prototypes for regional centres at the five regional grid control centres, while a further eleven renewable energy forecast centres are being planned at EGAT substations in areas with potential for renewable energy development.

“The centres will support the additional 8,000MW renewable energy integrated into the generation mix as well as renewable energy power plants of very small power producers, which may impact the control and stability of the country’s power system,” commented Kitti Petchsantad, Deputy Governor – Transmission System at EGAT.

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The implementation of the centres forms two key pillars of Thailand’s smart grid development in the period 2022-2031.

The Renewable Energy Forecast Centre is directed at predicting electricity generation from renewable and clean energy, including wind and solar energy operated by small power producers.

The forecasts are then incorporated with the plan for electricity generation of other fuel-based power plants to ensure that the power system can handle fluctuations and uncertainties of electricity generated from renewable energy.

The Demand Response Control Centre serves as the control centre for reducing electricity consumption via a load aggregator, which manages the demand response of large power users.

Currently, the Centre is being operated in the pilot phase with a reduced load of 50MW and with the Metropolitan Electricity Authority and the Provincial Electricity Authority serving as the load aggregators.

In the future when the load aggregator role is open to private agencies, the new energy business will emerge with all aggregators operating under the Centre.

In other activities in Thailand, EGAT has opened in Mae Hong Son Province, where a smart grid pilot is underway, a new public centre to enable locals and visitors to learn more about the energy system and smart grids.

The pilot has included the implementation of a grid-connected solar PV and battery energy storage system among other technologies.

Superfast charging LFP batteries for EVs

A 10 minute charge providing a driving range of 400km and a full charge delivering 700km?

That would satisfy most EV drivers and eliminate range anxiety – and it is claimed to be coming with Chinese battery manufacturing company CATL’s new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery named ‘Shenxing’.

CATL reports leveraging the super-electronic network cathode technology and fully nano-crystallized LFP cathode material to create a super-electronic network, which facilitates the extraction of lithium ions and the rapid response to charging signals.

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Its latest second-generation fast ion ring technology is used to modify the properties of graphite surface, which increases intercalation channels and shortens the intercalation distance for lithium ions, creating an expressway for current conduction.

A new superconducting electrolyte formula, which effectively reduces the viscosity of the electrolyte, resulting in improved conductivity, also has been developed.

Other improvements include reduced resistance of lithium-ion movement, while cell temperature control technology ensures that cells heat up to the optimal operating temperature range rapidly, allowing a 0-80% charge in just 30 minutes in temperature as low as -10°C.

CATL anticipates that mass production of Shenxing will be achieved before year-end and the first vehicles with the battery will be available on the market in the first quarter of next year.

Improving Bitcoin mining efficiency

With Bitcoin mining notoriously energy intensive and miners rushing to adopt greener and more sustainable operations, another alternative, which is being pursued by the London-based Quantum Blockchain Technologies, is to improve the efficiency of the mining itself and thus in turn its energy consumption.

The company’s ‘Method A’, unlike the standard approach of running as many hashes as possible within the available period, decides at the beginning of each block hashing whether to hash using a traditional search or a spaced confined search, with testing demonstrating an approximately 10% in mining speed.

But its ‘Method B’, for which a patent application was recently filed, is even more efficient, based on partial pre-computation on upcoming blocks prior to the current one being closed and guiding the search by deciding where the most promising winning hashes are likely to be found.

With this approach, the number of logic gates on the chip is reduced and the processing of a large number of hashes is avoided to obtain the results in less time.

In this case, there should be a 2.6x improvement in the ability to find a winning hash, compared to standard search, while saving up to 4.3% of energy.

However, its implementation requires a new architecture and the design of a new mining chip.

Setting sail with ‘Windwings’

Mitsubishi Corporation’s ‘Pyxis Ocean’, a 229m long bulk carrier vessel on charter to the global food giant Cargill, has become the first to be fitted with a novel wind propulsion system that could be key for the decarbonisation of shipping.

The two ‘Windwings’, which were designed by BAR Technologies in the EU Horizon 2020 supported initiative, are large wing sails measuring up to 37,5m in height with a 10m wide central component and front and rear 5m wide flaps that can be fitted to the deck of cargo ships, both new and as a retrofit, to harness the power of the wind.

The windwings can rotate and also pivot, right down to deck level, to allow for the differing wind angles and speeds.

With this wind assist, the windwings are expected to deliver average fuel savings of up to 30%.

The ‘Pyxis Ocean’ is currently on its maiden voyage with the windwings from Shanghai, where they were fitted, to Paranagua in Brazil with their performance being closely monitored to further improve their design and operation.

Hundreds of wings are planned to be built over the next few years and BAR Technologies is also researching new builds with improved hydrodynamic hull forms.

Nanotechnology, generally regarded as technologies at the atomic and molecular scales of size less than 100nm (1nm corresponding to a billionth of a metre), is a fast-growing area with the potential to impact many areas of activity.

One such is energy storage in which nanoscale innovations have already led to improvements, including the creation of advanced batteries with higher energy density and faster charging.

For example, California-based Sila Nanotechnologies has developed nanotechnology-based lithium-ion batteries with up to 20% capacity enhancement with the potential that can offer, for example to the improved range of electric vehicles or for use of wearable devices.

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Likewise nanotechnology has also boosted solar cell efficiency by incorporating nanoscale structures like quantum dots and perovskite materials, the white paper points out – the technology also gives rise to hybrid solar cells that both generate and store energy simultaneously.

Nanoscale supercapacitors offer high power density and rapid energy discharge, ideal for energy storage applications.

Quoting a projected market size for energy storage and conversion of $17 billion by 2028, the white paper states that despite the existing hurdles, the market is on a growth trajectory.

Investments and startups that revolve around nanotechnology for energy storage and conversion, in addition to prominent academic institutions like the US Department of Energy (DOE), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and universities worldwide, understand the importance of crafting new materials for sustainable energy applications.

Nanomaterials possess the potential to greatly enhance ion transportation and electron conductivity, which could be the solution to advancing this field.

The white paper notes, however, some barriers to entry in the field. Among these are the exorbitant expenditure for research and development and a lengthy development process, while also there are regulatory obstacles that can complicate market penetration.

The white paper concludes that with continuous research and collaboration, nanotechnology will persist in driving innovation and serve as an essential tool for pioneers in the field of energy storage and conversion, empowering them to break new ground in sustainable energy.

Over the past few decades, commercial buildings have become a focal point in the fight to minimise the global carbon footprint because they consume a lot of energy due to the increased use of cooling, heating, ventilation systems, lighting and computers. Some companies even use cleanrooms, which require up to 50 times more energy than non-classified spaces.

This means that commercial buildings, although unable to choose whether they use fossil or renewable energy as they are subject to the grid’s supply, have a lot to gain and contribute by using more renewable energy sources. In the near future they may not have a choice as commercial buildings face evolving regulation that either incentivizes owners to make the sustainable move or requires them to do so.

Although fossil fuels remain a prominent power source due to their replacements’ intermittency, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) will solve this unreliability problem and propel buildings and businesses in the right direction. Here’s how.

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Virtual power plants to the rescue

It’s already widely acknowledged that sustainable energy is the future for power, with the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) recently declaring long-term energy storage “the most pressing utility scale needed in the next decade” – the ability to store energy from renewable resources for later use is the answer.

VPPs have been around for the better part of 40 years. They give the ability to harness sustainable energy by bringing together multiple energy sources, also referred to as Distributed Energy Resources (DERs), such as solar panels, electric batteries, wind turbines.

The VPP then forms a system based on supply and demand that can be controlled according to the current grid needs so that it can avoid consuming power when it’s expensive and limited to consuming power when it’s cheap and abundant, all the way to providing power back to the grid when supply is limited – all in the hope of reducing the grid’s reliance on fossil fuels.

Some of the above mentioned energy resources are only relevant during the daytime (for example, solar panels) and become less efficient on cloudy or rainy days; wind-based energy depends on the fluctuating airflow, wave energy relies on ocean waves to generate electricity, and hydropower utilizes the gravitational force of falling or flowing water.

So there is some justification for businesses to hesitate in relying more on renewable energy sources, which they deem as unstable. Considering that a single hour of downtime can cost organisations over $100,000 from lost revenues and reputational damage, businesses are rightfully hesitant to rely on these solutions without fossil fuel backup.

However, although the grid currently runs in a one directional way and renewable energy sources are less consistent individually – when they become part of an extensive network of devices that supports a building’s energy needs around the clock, regardless of the time of day or weather conditions, they create a consistent and reliable energy supply alternative.

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VPPs: Multiple energy sources, multiple advantages

In our ‘smart’ age, the new generation of VPPs present a far more efficient way of using renewable energy. Today’s VPPs live up to their promise by eliminating integrating more resources into the grid, leveraging its flexibility, enabling greater share of renewable energy sources thus optimizing the grid’s capacity so it can do more with less.

This means that the VPPs are able to perform two activities. The first is control demand flexibility, the easier of the two, which turns off power demand when the grid is overworked. The second is to provide a supply service by supplying power back to the grid in exchange for lower rates, flat fees or similar.

Through these services, the risk of relying on sensitive sources is minimized and the ability to provide a continuous supply of energy based on actual demand is strengthened. Simultaneously, at times when supply is high, onsite or ‘ behind the meter’ energy storage solutions ensure that the surplus energy isn’t lost but stored to be utilised when needed.

Commercial buildings can then be part of a grid that provides a smart, reliable, cost-effective solution that considers both the planet’s and their business’ needs. Additionally, buildings can choose whether to include their energy assets as part of the VPP network, such as EV charging, and help the grid become more stable.

By doing so, VPPs enable commercial buildings to contribute to a greater solution together with the climate-responsible grid, to do their best without taking unreasonable risks, creating an energy ecosystem that is better for businesses, communities, and the planet.

As VPPs advance, so does our ability to move away from harmful energy resources and offer future generations a more sustainable approach. Doing so without asking businesses to sacrifice their ability to plan ahead and meet revenue goals is critical.

As the load on the grid is expected to grow exponentially in the coming months and years, now is the time to scale up and move forward to make the VPP part of the solution. The time is ripe to give VPP its time to shine.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Yoram Ashery has been the CEO of storage tech company Nostromo Energy since May 2021, specialising in managing technology companies, designing and executing international go-to-market plans and leading business development and complex financing and commercial transactions.

The human factor, when it comes to the use of distributed generation such as rooftop solar and its delivery to the grid is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to the modern grid.

Zhao, who directs Mines’ Smart Grid and Energy Research Lab, intends to study this human factor and this in turn could be incorporated so that the grid could predict how it will then be used by the humans.

Zhao says that while there is a great deal of effort underway right now to build the technology and infrastructure needed to run smart grids, the one thing missing from current research is the human factor.

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“The most important part of the equation is people, and we are trying to understand human behaviour to help build the most robust and fully functional smart grid models.”

The grant from the National Science Foundation is worth almost $200,000 over the next two years.

Specifically the intention is to introduce a data-driven approach to analyse and explicitly model power demand behaviour at the household level using real-world long-term data.

The goal is to reveal macro- and micro-residential power demand patterns, through matching 15-minute resolution smart meter data with consumer surveys, along with local parcel data and meteorological data, to achieve a comprehensive understanding of residential power demand behaviour at a disaggregated level.

This should then lay the foundation for research focused on data-driven analysis and modelling for next-generation power grids.

The primary contribution of the project is intended to be the development of a data-driven temperature-time-day-based model for residential power demand behaviour, relying solely on real-world data.

Zhao anticipates that the research also should have wider impacts, with the proposed model potentially readily expanded to other domains such as water usage.

It also should contribute to better understanding incentive effectiveness in changing consumer behaviour, particularly in green consumption.

Alongside the project a new ‘Smart Grid and Data Science’ curriculum will be developed, combining power engineering and social science.

Partners in the project include the local coop West River Electric Association and the chamber of commerce Elevate Rapid City.

Smoke impact on solar PV

The new project comes as Zhao has just completed another study on the impact of wildfire smoke on solar PV.

While solar energy production is likely to be impacted by low-level smoke, the project found that the output of individual solar panels can be reduced by nearly 50%, even when the smoke is present at high altitudes and air quality near the ground is not significantly impacted.

Moreover, the fluctuations vary with the intensity of the smoke, which often varies, indicating the importance of taking this into account as solar becomes more widespread in wildfire-prone areas and beyond given the propensity for the smoke to potentially travel large distances in the air.

The V2G self-consumption station is operational within Qilian Mountain National Park’s long-term national research base, providing continuous support for ecological patrols and clean, low-carbon energy utilisation within the park.

According to NIO in a press release, the system marks the first global photovoltaic self-consumption system with V2G (vehicle to grid), composed of photovoltaic power stations, bidirectional V2G charging piles and all-electric vehicles.

V2G systems allow EVs to serve as distributed mobile energy units, charging during low-demand periods and supplying power during peak times.

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The technology, through the deployment of source-network-storage-load, states NIO, achieves local self-production and self-marketing of green energy and minimises the impact on the external environment.

V2G bidirectional charging piles offer EV charging services; with the reverse discharge function, surplus vehicle-stored energy is supplied back to the grid for nighttime or emergency use within the park.

Photovoltaic power energises the system, with an annual average output of about 690,000kWh, fully covering the EV energy consumption within the park.

Surplus energy can cater to over 50% of other power needs, resulting in an estimated annual carbon reduction of around 55 tonnes.

Clean Parks initiative

NIO and WWF previously collaborated together to support the ecological construction of Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, as well as Giant Panda National Park, and became strategic partners of the Clean Parks ecological co-conservation plan in April 2022.

The V2G announcement marks the commencement of the third phase of the Clean Parks and WWF ecological co-conservation programme.

The self-consumption facilities were established by Clean Parks in collaboration with NIO, Astronergy and One Earth Nature Foundation in Qilian Mountain National Park, China, on the eve of the Second National Park Forum, under the coordination of the Qinghai Forestry and Grassland Bureau and the WWF.

This was one of the key messages from Alan Winde, Premier of the Western Cape province of South Africa, who hosted an Energy Digicon under the theme What role will Artificial Intelligence play in the future of energy generation?

Keynote speaker Martin Svensson, co-director of AI Sweden, said looking ahead, AI will impose greater challenges on the energy sector.

Citing the conversion of the automotive sector to a fully electric-based one, Svensson said the question is how to build the new system by harnessing AI.

Svensson said that in the future, individuals would also be able to produce their own energy, largely from solar power and AI applications would be integrated into this.

“Imagine a future where we are our own energy producers and what we produce we will be able to trade and have a system that optimises that from a financial perspective.” 

Forging a new energy system

Referencing think-tank RethinkX’s research – Rethinking Energy 2020-2030 – which says that we are on “the cusp of the fastest, deepest, most profound disruption of the energy sector in over a century”, Svensson said the current system will be disrupted by a new one.

RethinkX says that with most disruptions, this one is being driven by the convergence of several key technologies whose costs and capabilities have been improving on consistent and predictable trajectories.

These are solar photovoltaic power, wind power and lithium-ion battery energy storage. 

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“Our analysis shows that 100% clean electricity from the combination of solar, wind, and batteries (SWB) is both physically possible and economically affordable across the entire continental United States as well as the overwhelming majority of other populated regions of the world by 2030,” said RethinkX.

“Adoption of SWB is growing exponentially worldwide and disruption is now inevitable because by 2030 they will offer the cheapest electricity option for most regions. Coal, gas, and nuclear power assets will become stranded during the 2020s, and no new investment in these technologies is rational from this point forward.”

Energy systems run completely on renewable energy sources

Svensson said the new energy system will look completely different to the current one. He said, for a province like the Western Cape, the future system could be one without loadshedding. This would be achieved through a system that would be 100% solar, wind and battery based. 

“This is not driven by the current issues you face or by climate activism, but economical forces. That’s why I’m confident this will happen. There is a lot of positive opportunities.”

Svensson said solar and wind are already the cheapest new-generation options. It also costs less than existing coal, gas and nuclear power plants. The cost of SWB systems will fall another 70% by 2030, making disruption “inevitable”.

In terms of the Western Cape, Svensson said the region could have a “future of energy abundance.”

Based on modelling from California in the US, which has a similar solar and wind profile to the Western Cape, Svensson said in the next 10 years, the province could generate 14GW of solar, 1.7GW of wind and 80GWh of energy storage.

“This ‘super power’ will be enough to electrify the entire transportation sector and more,” said Svensson. He said the province had already started on this journey.

“This is within reach… The opportunity is here to accelerate this. This will solve the current situation,” said Svensson.

In terms of scepticism around AI, Svensson said it was important to learn and understand AI to help mitigate any possible risks it may pose. 

“We need to learn how to use it, but we do need to learn how to manage risks over time.”

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AI to play a huge role in the energy space

Special Advisor to the Premier on Energy, Alwie Lester, said AI will start to play a lot more of a critical role in the energy space.

“With the advent of AI, you could have a dynamic system that is managed by information and data that’s readily available and processed quite quickly,” Lester said.

“Typically, you could have a system operator that responds to things very differently based on AI as opposed to the conventional way we are responding to the system at the moment.”

“In the general energy space, I think we will start to see AI play a lot more of a critical role because you’re sitting with millions and millions of terabytes of information, especially the energy information but also economic and consumer information,” Lester added.

“And if you have the ability to sort of link these, your decisions around what energy at what point and at what price becomes rather easier when you have a system that can do this for you. The opportunity for AI to play a bigger role, particularly in the energy space is huge.

“We need to encourage the industry to look at this more holistically and not just try and solve one problem with it.

“But also look at it as part of the industry going forward.” 

Originally published by Yunus Kemp on ESI.

DEWA files 3D printing patent

Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA)’s Research and Development Centre is something of a pioneer with 3D printing and has just filed a new patent for an innovative build plate and method to detach 3D printed objects automatically.

This is intended to improve the performance of 3D printers by easing the removal of 3D printed objects during the printing process and thereby making it feasible to have a continuous 3D printing operation.

The invention supports DEWA’s intensive efforts to develop advanced infrastructure and specialised software in 3D printing and additive manufacturing, and invest in them to overcome challenges in the energy sector, according to the utility.

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HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA, says that the utility supports Dubai’s endeavours to become the global hub for 3D printing by finding innovative solutions and technologies that modernise the manufacture of spare parts in its business.

“We adopt 3D printing as an innovative solution for our internal operations to print spare parts for devices and equipment, in addition to extending the lifespan of our equipment,” he says, adding that DEWA is the first organisation in the GCC to apply metal 3D printing technology using threads and wires.

DEWA reports having achieved a Guinness World Records title for its 3D printed laboratory and previously a patent has been registered for an adhesive device for 3D printers, which automatically distributes the adhesive material on the 3D printing plate, to ensure that the printed material sticks adequately to the build plate.

Harnessing the power of quantum for solar energy harvesting

Northeastern University professor Sijia Dong has been awarded a US Department of Energy grant to explore algorithms for simulations on quantum computers that may further the pursuit of renewable energy sources.

Specifically what Dong wants to do is develop quantum algorithms that can enable quantum chemical simulations of macromolecules that may be leveraged for solar energy harvesting and conversion.

“In photosynthesis, a plant can convert solar energy to make sugar, a chemical that can help the plant survive,” says Dong, an assistant professor of chemistry and chemical biology as well as affiliated faculty of physics and chemical engineering at Northeastern.

“If we can do something like this artificially – convert the solar energy into chemical energy to make materials or useful chemicals – that will be very helpful for society.”

To date, Dong and her team have been using traditional digital computers to simulate the photochemistry of macromolecules and materials that could lead to new forms of clean energy.

However, it is a hard problem computationally and if the simulations can be carried over to a quantum computer, that should greatly accelerate the capability of developing such molecules and materials.

A Samsung Galaxy Ring

This column doesn’t normally cover rumours, but those about Samsung mobile products tend to be quite reliable so we have no hesitation in reporting the likely release of a Samsung Galaxy Ring.

Why a Galaxy Ring is of interest is because early patents indicate that it has potential for smart home integration and to control connected devices.

What we know so far is that a smart ring is almost certainly under development with a possible launch in 2024.

Based on the patents filed, other possible integrations include health tracking, such as heart rate and temperature monitoring, and coupled with XR glasses, finger and hand tracking in XR applications based on their positional information.

The concept of a connected ring isn’t new and the Oura ring as a fitness monitor has been around since 2015.

For Samsung, it would mark the company’s continuous evolution in the wearables market as an adjunct to its mobiles, while potentially providing a significant step up in convenience for smart home enthusiasts.

The funding, part of a total of almost £4 million ($5.1 million) that has been promised for AI innovation for industrial decarbonisation, is intended to support the development of approaches for decarbonisation in order to support the transition to net zero.

The lion’s share of the funding, £500,000 ($636,703) has been awarded to the Digital Catapult to establish a virtual ‘centre of excellence’ to advance and promote the adoption of AI decarbonisation applications.

The ‘Artificial Intelligence for Decarbonisation’s Virtual Centre of Excellence’ (ADViCE) initiative, which will be led in partnership with the Energy Systems Catapult and Alan Turing Institute, is planned to understand and address barriers that prevent companies from using AI decarbonisation applications and to identify innovation opportunities to develop new high growth applications.

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Multiple parallel work streams are planned to bring together stakeholders such as adopters, AI developers, investors, local government, institutions, regulatory authorities and academics.

Driving power sector decarbonisation

The balance of the funding is focused on supporting the development of innovative approaches to help drive decarbonisation in the power sector.

Building controls specialist Future Decisions, based at Reading University, receives £104,651 ($113,263) for its ‘OptimalPrime’ initiative to enhance AI for building management systems in order to optimise the building control to deliver sustainability savings, potentially up to 65% per building.

Open Climate Fix, a non-profit lab, receives £121,500 ($154,670) to create an open source model for hyper-local solar PV generation forecasting, with extensions to EV load modelling, applying AI with real-time electricity grid data, satellite imagery, solar PV site data and weather data.

The University of Nottingham receives £133,932 ($170,496) for another solar generation forecasting initiative, in this case to create AI models combining sky images and numerical weather data in order to improve the prediction accuracy of meteorological parameters.

H2GO Power, which is developing hydrogen storage solutions, receives £130,621 ($166 281) to develop a module for its AI hydrogen management platform, HyAI, for cases with highly seasonal power demand and extreme events to optimise hydrogen delivery for multiple off-takers

Quantum solutions developer Secqai receives £100,000 ($127 249) to create a neuromorphic computing unit emulating the neural structure of the human brain as a potential step towards the more energy efficient use of AI in computing.

Commenting, Minister for Energy Efficiency and Green Finance Lord Callanan said that with the UK’s expertise with advanced AI the boundaries must now be pushed in how the technology can enhance the rapidly growing clean energy sector.

“It’s projects like [these] that will take us to the next step on our ambitious journey to becoming net zero, while boosting our energy security and creating a new wave of skilled jobs for the future.”

AI funding for smart grid

Alongside the awards, which also included two for AI initiatives to advance decarbonisation in industry and one in agriculture, a further £2.25 million ($2.86 million) was allocated to support further AI innovation in the areas of electrification and the smart grid, transportation and land use for renewables generation.

Up to £350,000 ($445 355) may be awarded for the individual projects, which must be completed by March 2025.

Applications are due by 10 October with the awards expected to be in announced in December and project kick-off from February 2024.

With the major growth of new energy systems expected in the years ahead in the form of renewable generation, particularly solar and wind, along with the supporting transmission and distribution infrastructure, environmental and sustainability considerations are becoming increasingly important for today’s utilities.

With this in mind, Iberdrola has launched the new Carbon2Nature (C2N) company to harness the potential of carbon credit markets to drive the development of projects that will generate the credits and that then would be made available to customers to support their decarbonisation.

Iberdrola’s stated aim is to capture and store more than 61Mt of CO2 in natural sinks such as forests, coastal ecosystems and agricultural soils through the promotion of conservation and restoration projects in these.

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The focus is on regions where Iberdrola is present and where such solutions have significant potential, with over three-quarters of the projects likely in Latin American countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile and the remainder in countries in the northern hemisphere, including Spain, the United Kingdom and Portugal.

C2N is already working on the development of projects in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and Spain, the company reports.

“To face the global challenge of climate change, the firm was created with the ambition to make a long-term impact at an international level,” says Miguel Ángel García Tamargo, director of Carbon2Nature, who previously held various roles with Iberdrola clean energy subsidiary Avangrid.

“In order to achieve this, it is committed to diversification in geographies and projects and promotes collaborative strategies for their development with local communities and other actors, guaranteeing the highest levels of quality.”

RGI, IUCN energy solutions partnership

Another new initiative in this area is a partnership between the Renewables Grid Initiative – an EU-funded TSO, NGO collaboration – and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with a five-year agreement on the development of sustainable renewable energy and electricity grids.

A key project currently being developed is the ‘Global Initiative for Nature, Renewables & Grids’, with the intent to support key stakeholders to incorporate nature-positive approaches in renewable energy generation and transmission.

If successful, the project should lead to a monitoring and reporting system, showcasing solutions and progress globally.

Antonella Battaglini, CEO of the Renewable Grid Initiative, comments: “It is possible to address climate, energy and biodiversity security in parallel when well planned, energy infrastructure can contribute to create nature protection and restoration opportunities.”

At the end of June, more than 200,000 individual and collective self-consumption installations were operating on its network, Endesa has reported.

This follows the connection of 85,000 self-consumption units in that six-month period, compared with 81,800 in all of 2022 and almost 3.5 times more than in 2021.

In particular there was a notable tripling in the number of collective installations, increasing from 161 at the start of 2023 to 488 by the end of June.

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Such installations have been the last to join the self-consumption ‘boom’ in Spain, Endesa has indicated, noting they are expected to continue to increase significantly in the future, with almost three-quarters of family homes of this type wanting to participate.

For example, the almost 500 collective installations are comprised of more than 2,400 customers.

The more than 200,000 self-consumption installations in Endesa’s network – which takes in Andalusia, Extremadura, Catalonia, Aragon, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands – have a combined installed capacity of 3GW.

The majority, almost 99%, are with surpluses that are fed into the network.

By area, most are in Andalusia and Catalonia, which concentrate 84% of the active self-consumption with close to 90,400 and 78,000 units respectively.

In the Canary Islands, the number is close to 10,000, having doubled over the first half of 2023, while in Aragón the number is close to 7,400 following an 84% increase and in the Balearic Islands it is close to 11,670 after an 81% increase.

Endesa anticipates that given the current rate, the number of activated self-consumption connections will reach 270,000 by the end of 2023.

To expedite the procedure, which is otherwise complex, particularly for collective installations, Endesa reports having proposed changes to the regulator with the aim to complete contracts within a time of 10 days as well as initiating improvements in its communications procedures.

The new DER-specific ancillary service ‘MW Dispatch Service’ will support the management of transmission network constraints, by extending the options available to the ESO’s control room beyond those generators currently operating in the Balancing Mechanism.

With the support of the UK Power Networks and NGED control rooms, the ESO will be able to instruct these DER units to reduce their output at times of system constraint, enabling DERs to receive constraint payments for the electricity they would have otherwise generated.

The service will provide a cheaper alternative to the existing constraint management process used within the balancing mechanism, helping to reduce costs for consumers.

UKPN and NGED are in the process of signing up customers to participate in this service which will start to operate over the coming months.

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This will involve developing technical capabilities that will enable the distribution companies to coordinate and exchange data with the ESO while being able to dispatch the generators when there is a constraint in the transmission network.

In a release announcing the collaboration, Claire Dykta, head of markets for ESO, commented, “Collaboration across networks is helping us to unlock new solutions to manage the network of the future. Alongside other steps on our Markets Roadmap, the MW Dispatch Service is unlocking new tools to deliver long-term management of constraint costs and to deliver new service options for distributed assets.”

Added Ben Godfrey, director of DSO at National Grid Electricity Distribution: “Through the MW Dispatch project, we are providing the ESO with unparalleled visibility of new DERs connecting to our network, and the ability to manage constraints on the transmission network in a more efficient manner.

“This, alongside wider industry reform work, will enable us to accelerate over 2GW of additional generation connection offers in the South West. This collaborative approach, and the underlying capabilities are now being scaled up across the UK to help us alleviate wider constraints at the transmission/distribution boundary and connect more renewable generation to the network.”

And with the UK government aiming to generate 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, I believe the sector’s technology needs to undergo significant modernisation efforts if it’s to adequately support the rollout of sustainable energy solutions.

By Stephen Magennis, Head of Energy & Utilities, EU at Expleo

It’s a sentiment that resonates across the industry. For instance, our recent Business Transformation Index research found half of energy business leaders believe digital transformation is crucial for enhancing access to affordable power amid our current energy crisis.

However, the research also revealed that E&U organisations face several key barriers to adopting transformative technologies, such as technology immaturity, exposure to cybersecurity risks, and the skills gap. In this piece, I’ll explore these challenges and discuss how they can be overcome.

Technology as a vehicle for change

Over the past few years, the energy sector has demonstrated that technology can be a driver of sustainable change. This is exemplified in the numerous eco-friendly breakthroughs we’ve seen – from industrial heat pumps to solar powered trains.

In a sector that has traditionally been difficult to digitalise, the rate of transformation is picking up pace, a trend I expect to continue. For example, energy leaders now see the modernisation of data management as a key business priority. With its potential to provide flexibility, balance demand for intermittent renewables and drive efficiencies for suppliers, the benefits of accurate real-time data are evident.

On the infrastructure side, modernising data management can help facilitate the roll-out of smart grids to deliver data-driven operations, and enable better decision-making, predictive maintenance, and energy distribution. This translates to a more reliable and resilient system as E&U decision-makers utilise real-time data to improve planning and efficiency.

However, despite all this progress, nearly half (44%) of energy business leaders believe they will miss deadlines to deliver digital change in 2023 – up from 17% in 2022.

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The barriers to digital transformation

Among our clients, we’re seeing resources and attention being diverted towards the effects of the energy crisis. It has heavily interrupted the delivery of transformation projects, including efforts to decarbonise or pivot away from hydrocarbons.

For instance, energy sector business transformation plans are still being hampered by the immaturity of certain key technologies, such as batteries, energy storage and carbon capture solutions. And the volatile investment climate and uncertainty around government support for these technologies in some markets is only exacerbating the issue.

Cybersecurity is also causing concern, with 65% of energy leaders expect their organisations to be victims of cyber-attack or data breaches in the next 12 months. There appears to be greater awareness around critical infrastructure vulnerabilities and the risk of attacks from cyber criminals, but there are still defensive gaps that need to be plugged.

Finally, 83% of leaders agree they’ve under-invested in the technological skills base of their employees. This has hindered transformation plans, as skilled professionals are integral to rolling out new technology across an organisation.

Looking to the future

For E&U companies, the focus must be on overcoming these barriers to technology deployment whilst addressing the sustainability agenda.

It starts with a focus on modernising technology they use, so they’re able to maintain accurate and up-to-date data. With existing operational models relying heavily on legacy systems and complex assets, it’s re-assuring that data management, quality, and governance are energy leaders’ top priorities.

At the heart of this solution lies talent. Addressing the sector’s skills gaps will require both internal training and external support to equip workforces with digital skills and encourage innovation. To ease the pressure in the short term, businesses can look to increase engagement with temporary or contractual labour who are experienced in the adoption of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI).

And it should all be underpinned by a robust cybersecurity strategy. When working to modernise their technology infrastructure, businesses must create and maintain robust cybersecurity measures such as regular vulnerability assessments, strong encryption, and continuous threat monitoring. Energy organisations should also focus on implementing employee cyber awareness and best practice.

Overall, these technological challenges need to be overcome quickly to develop solutions that benefit consumers and meet net-zero targets. Because if these issues can be addressed, businesses will also improve their operational resilience as they will have clearer understanding of their vulnerabilities. As such, they’ll be more adept at plugging these holes and better optimise their operational functions – significantly increasing their competitive advantage in the process.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Stephen Magennis has been managing director and head of energy & utilities, EU at Expleo since 2019.

The partnership will see the fast-growing Octopus Energy team up with the UK’s largest electricity distribution network operator to help the grid exploit excess renewable power.

Participating customers will get free electricity when there is excess available on the local grid from abundant renewables. Based on UK Power Networks’ forecasts, Octopus will send customers a notification of the times they can ‘Power-ups’ their homes for free a day in advance.

Octopus Energy, in a release announcing the partnership, comments on how recent years have seen the transmission grid face challenges of imbalance when energy supply exceeds demand.

The partnership with Octopus Energy comes as grid operators like UK Power Networks are looking into alternative means of balancing the grid, to avoid turning off these renewable generators during times of surplus.

This marks the latest in a series of partnerships between the two. In 2019 the pair launched Powerloop, a vehicle-to-grid trial where participating customers were paid each time they discharged energy from their electric car back to the grid.

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Alex Schoch, head of flexibility at Octopus Energy Group, commented: “Thanks to Octopus’ proprietary technology rewarding ‘demand turn up’, we no longer need to switch off bountiful solar and wind power when consumers can use it up for free instead.

“It’s good for the grid and good for the planet – a win for everybody. ‘Power-ups’ is yet another arrow in the quiver of ‘demand flexibility’ and it’s great to work with an innovator like UK Power Networks.”

Sotiris Georgiopoulos, UK Power Networks’ director, added: “In response to growing volumes of renewable power, UK Power Networks is the first distribution system operator to call for ‘demand turn up’.

“Tapping into customer flexibility means we can connect more renewable energy, keeping costs down for our customers.”

UK Power Networks owns and maintains electricity cables and lines across London, the South East and East of England.

Power Ups sign up opens on 9th August 2023 and dates/times of ‘Power-ups’ will vary.

Kaluza heads ‘down under’

UK headquartered energy software company Kaluza is planning to expand its activities in Australia and New Zealand with an office in Melbourne led up by former London-based client solutions director, Conor Maher-McWilliams.

Over the next 12 months, Kaluza intends to build a local team of experts to support activity in the region.

The team will work closely with Kaluza customer AGL Energy, one of Australia’s largest energy retailers and generators, on the ‘OVO Energy Australia’ joint venture to accelerate the adoption of clean energy solutions across the country and develop new EV and solar propositions for AGL’s customers.

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Kaluza is also expanding its managed charging programme to New Zealand with Meridian Energy. Through this new service, Kaluza will manage the charging of Meridian Energy’s customers’ EVs in response to their needs as well as market signals and pricing data.

Scott Neuman, CEO of Kaluza, described the development as “an important milestone” for the company’s global expansion, which so far has extended to Europe, North America and Japan.

Training for the energy transition

Britain’s Heriot-Watt University, known for its technical training, is launching a new Master of Science degree programme to provide advanced training in the energy transition.

The programme, run from the University’s Orkney campus, is taught both in person and online, with a focus on the technologies, systems, processes and economics, alongside the design of transition projects to move away from fossil fuels and accelerate the integration of renewable energy.

The MSc in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Transition, to give its full title, has been developed by the mechanical and energy systems engineer Susan Krumdieck and is built around the rapidly growing discipline of ‘transition engineering’, an interdisciplinary approach to change for unsustainable systems across power, transport, industry, real estate and other sectors, according to a statement.

Krumdieck, who hails originally from New Zealand, is Chair of Energy Transition Engineering at Heriot-Watt and her research group has led the development of ‘transition engineering’ as a discipline since the early 2000s.

“If the world is to decarbonise and reach net zero emissions by 2050, whole systems will have to be redesigned and redeveloped, including energy infrastructure, technology, regulation and markets,” she commented.

“A new generation of transition engineering specialists is needed to drive this change – and our MSc ReSET is firmly focused on helping students and professionals develop these vital skills – so they can help to reset global energy systems.”

The MSc programme has four themes: Transition Engineering, Economics and Commercialisation, Renewable Energy Technology and Energy Systems.

Hydrogen trains – before their time?

Germany has been a pioneer with hydrogen-powered trains over the past five years and the rail operator Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen (LNVG) was the first, a year ago, to launch a network of such trains using Alstom’s Coradia iLint rolling stock.

But now the company has decided that its future – at least for the next generation – is with battery-powered trains, citing their cheaper operating costs.

LNVG is now planning to obtain 102 new units with battery-powered technology, which will progressively replace its diesel rolling stock from 2029 onwards until the last diesel is withdrawn in 2037.

Hydrogen has been billed as the option for emission-free trains on lines that have not been electrified. However, an advantage of the battery-powered trains is that they can run on both electrified lines, drawing on the power and recharging batteries via the pantograph, and non-electrified lines using the battery power with charging from purpose-built charging islands.

LNVG has not specified what the cost differences are or where they arise. But like hydrogen for road transport, undoubtedly the ‘chicken and egg’ of infrastructure availability vs demand is likely to be a factor.

With hydrogen-powered trains under test in other locations such as Canada, their potential is very much a space to watch.

The trial is to deliver 100% hydrogen gas through a 30km decommissioned pipeline between the eastern Scotland coastal town of Grangemouth and the district of Granton on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

SGN has reported that over the past year, a team of engineers and researchers has carried out surveys and assessments to determine the integrity of the pipeline.

These tests included an operation which involved pushing a pipeline inspection gauge (PIG) through the pipeline using compressed air to clean it and identify any critical defects.

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A hydrotest was also conducted, for which engineers filled the entire pipeline with water exceeding the pressure the pipeline will be exposed to during the live trial.

Inspections of the condition of the pipeline also were performed above ground, below ground and at river crossings.

Based on this evidence, Ofgem has confirmed the suitability of the pipeline for hydrogen testing and for the project to progress to the next stage, which will be to connect the existing pipeline to a hydrogen supply from project partner INEOS from its Grangemouth facility.

Gemma Simpson, SGN Director of LTS Futures, says that offsite trials will allow testing of procedures for making new connections to the pipeline, including the first live welding procedure on a hydrogen pipeline.

“If we’re successful we’ll be able to proceed to a live trial in 2024 which will deliver a blueprint for repurposing Great Britain’s local transmission system network, driving decarbonisation and supporting our net zero goals.”

SGN’s £30 million ($38 million) LTS Futures project is focused on testing and repurposing the decommissioned pipeline as the basis for the wider use of hydrogen within the 11,000 km local gas transmission system (LTS).

Among other activities related to hydrogen, SGN is leading the H100 Fife neighbourhood project to trial the use of hydrogen in around 300 homes and is co-leading a study on the potential use of hydrogen for heating in multi-occupancy residences, which account for about one-fifth of the country’s domestic heating demand.

The so-called Corporate Framework Agreement includes connections for the 110, 150, 220 and 380kV onshore high-voltage AC connections to the power grid in Germany and the Netherlands on behalf of TenneT in the coming years.

The agreement aims to ensure the availability of materials and resources to realise the planned high-voltage projects on time.

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“In the coming years, we will construct some 900km of high-voltage in Germany and TenneT will realise some 4,000km of high-voltage in the Netherlands,” stated TenneT in a release, announcing the agreement.

The contract value of the award is €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion), of which one half is designated to investments in Germany and the other half to the Netherlands.

In the coming years, the following companies will supply the cables for TenneT’s projects:

• Brugg Kabel GmbH (Germany/Switzerland)
• LS Cable & System Ltd. (South Korea)
• NKT GmbH & Co. KG (Germany)
• Prysmian Netherlands B.V. (The Netherlands)
• Südkabel GmbH (Germany)
• Taihan Netherlands B.V. (The Netherlands/South Korea)
• TBEA Shandong Luneng Taishan Cable Co., Ltd. (China)
• TKF BV Twentsche Kabelfabriek (The Netherlands)

Energy Transitions Podcast: The cost of Europe’s copper crunch

Accommodating increasing connections

In announcing the cable supply, TenneT cites the increasing number of distributed energy resources (DERs) across the two countries: “The transition from fossil to renewable energy demands a lot from the power grid.

“Households are switching to heat pumps, roofs are full of solar panels, wind farms provide sustainably generated energy, and businesses and industry want to switch to electricity en masse.

“To meet this demand, TenneT has to substantially expand the high-voltage grid. This not only requires a lot of specialised work, such as engineering work, it also demands speed and simplification in the execution of projects.”

Within the Framework Agreements, states Tennet, suppliers know what their portfolio will look like in the coming years expediting project completion times.

“With that knowledge, market parties can stock up on standard materials. And although we have no obligation to purchase, this way we make it easier and more efficient for the projects.”

According to the TSO, selected projects can thus have their cables delivered on demand, saving just under six months.

According to the Group’s 2023 ISG Provider Lens Power and Utilities – Services and Solutions report for Europe, European governments are seeking to blunt the impact of unprecedented energy inflation and utilities are stepping up investments in upgrading infrastructure.

“Utilities are under constant pressure to reduce operating costs and improve customer service,” said Ola Chowning, ISG partner, North Europe. “That is why many of them are turning to providers that offer digitally managed intelligent solutions.”

The growing shift toward clean energy is fundamentally changing the dynamics of the European power and utilities sector, ISG says, and in addition to pursuing self-reliance, the goals of achieving net-zero and decarbonisation are now driving investments in the sector.

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Specifically, states ISG’s report, the following trends are impacting Europe’s power and utility industry and its quest for self reliance:

Industry convergence

The need for sustainable energy sources and net-zero targets has started to blur the distinction between oil and gas or power and utilities industries. Oil and gas and power generation companies have begun moving toward becoming new energy companies through green and sustainable efforts like renewable and hydrogen projects.

‘Brown industries’ have started to invest in clean tech as utilities are moving away from being ‘only’ transmission and distribution companies or retailers. They are starting to invest in sustainable technologies like e-mobility or its related infrastructure needs, with decarbonisation a critical factor. Such industry convergence has led to unlocking newer revenue streams for these companies.

Aging infrastructure and rising costs

Many nuclear and thermal power generation units are nearing the end of their lifetime and require upgrading or replacement with new-age units. Compared to initial asset installation, the demand has also increased multi-fold, resulting in the maximizing the lifecycles of these assets and infrastructure.

Even first-generation sustainable power generation equipment such as wind and hydro turbines have almost reached the end of their lifecycle to be decommissioned. The current transmission and distribution infrastructure and its supporting grid infrastructure also face the challenge of needing an upgrade or replacement.

Given the current energy needs in the region, power generation companies and utilities are compelled to run the assets at maximum output, resulting in faster wear and tear of the infrastructure. The cost of replacing the entire asset at once is next to impossible, therefore power generation companies are incurring increased costs.

Asset resilience and rising operating costs

As noted, power generation companies and utilities are becoming more concerned about asset resilience.

Due to the age of these assets, there are increased possibilities of unplanned outages. The average load uncertainty due to volatility in hourly demand also creates possibilities for unplanned outages and sub-optimal asset performance.

This results in increased operational costs and an inability to meet the demand; therefore, asset resiliency services are much sought after so providers can maintain their current generation and distribution output.

Energy consumerism and customer expectations

The choice of selecting an energy supplier rests with the end customer. This has led to market reforms, linking the retail and the wholesale markets closer as consumers are provided access to information, especially on the costs and the source of energy generated, which is reaching the end customer.

The open market policy in Europe has brought competition onto the wholesale market to keep a check on pricing levels. Given environmental concerns, some customers prefer energy supply from a sustainable source, and some have even installed greener energy sources (solar PV) in their individual properties.

This trend has increased consumer expectations for an enhanced experience from the initial touchpoint.

Self-reliance for the future utility

Digital has been the buzzword for the future of the utility.

To address the above-observed trends and other business challenges, power and utility companies have started their digital transformation journeys by adapting new-age and next-generation technologies.

Digital transformation in the power and utilities sector would enable the move toward sustainable sources, increase asset performance and improve customer experiences while also meeting regulatory requirements.

However, writes Alan Greenshields, director of ESS Inc, as this transition accelerates it is broadly recognized that challenges associated with connecting wind, solar and battery technologies to the grid present significant impediments to achieving global climate and clean energy goals.

Understanding and overcoming these impediments will be critical if net zero targets are to be achieved. 

The energy epiphany

The war in Ukraine destabilised global energy markets and led to significant cost increases across Europe and worldwide, shocking the Western world into the realisation that the slow transition from fossil to renewable energy needs to accelerate significantly.

The epiphany has come with an understanding that this will require substantial investments in infrastructure as we transition the grid from big, centralised fossil power plants to distributed renewable infrastructure.

To deliver the transition, the US has passed the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act, the EU is set to match the US with its Green Deal, and the UK has deployed a new Security Energy Strategy with promises to go further.

Beyond funding, a number of regulatory hurdles remain to realizing the potential benefits of these ambitious programs.

The UK strategy was announced in April 2022 and promised to slash through red tape so that solar, wind and battery infrastructure can be deployed and renewable goals met. One year later, reports by the Financial Times and others are documenting the ongoing challenges posed by interconnect issues, posing a significant barrier.

These issues have led to a queue for renewable deployments that can involve a 15 year wait in the UK to connect new renewable power projects to the grid. These delays pose severe headwinds to Britain’s ambitious decarbonization targets.

The challenge primarily lies in an outdated grid and an outdated bureaucracy. The UK’s National Grid, with its architecture designed for a small number of large fossil fuel generators, has historically had 40-50 applications for connections a year.

With the increase in new renewable projects, this has risen to about 400 a year, representing ~234GW of renewable energy waiting to be connected to the grid.

Grid infrastructure has not kept pace with the rapid growth in renewable projects. One way to accelerate renewable deployment while enabling grid upgrades will be to prioritize new projects that include long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies. These projects can ease transmission congestion by storing excess energy during periods of over-generation and deploying it when needed.

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Overcoming the connection queue

Addressing a multifaceted problem will require multifaceted solutions.

First, clearly the bureaucracy that manages grid interconnections to evaluate and approve new applications needs reform to keep pace with the volume of requests.

A predominantly renewable grid will look different than the fossil-based system upon which we have relied to date, and our regulators must enable, not hinder, that transition.

In the short term, one potential reform that could accelerate approvals would be to prioritize project viability instead of simply “first come, first served” when evaluating proposed projects. This can lead to nonviable projects wasting limited public resources despite the fact that they are unlikely to ever be built at the expense of viable projects that could move forward quickly.

For example, the initial application doesn’t require a letter of authority for a parcel of land. Projects without a clear claim to a specific physical location can hold up projects on which construction could begin immediately.

Delays are worsened by other administrative issues, such as demands for cumbersome environmental assessments for each project, and the increasing cost of booking grid capacity in advance. In fact, a grid connection tied to a piece of land could be worth more than £1 million ($1.3 million).

The National Grid has addressed this issue in a recently published report saying it is carrying out “a major programme of reform to redesign the existing connection process”, which includes ensuring inactive projects are not blocking the pipeline.

Hopefully, this makes a positive impact, but we still need to go a step further to address the backlog. A good starting point would be to update the regulatory regime and remove planning blockers as well as changing to a first ready, first serviced basis and making sure that companies that put in applications have viable projects. 

Allowing greater flow of electricity

Transmission system upgrades are also needed to expand the capacity of existing high-voltage transmission lines to allow greater flows of renewable electricity, carry electricity long distances and better connect regions and communities. This will ensure people can access power when they need it, providing affordable and abundant clean energy.

In the long term, upgrades are likely to require more cables, poles, wires, and transformers to transport electricity, skilled workers, investment, and specific materials, all of which will be in high demand as many countries are facing the same challenges at the same time.

Grid reform

The UK can’t continue to react to one electricity/energy crisis at a time until the growing complexity of the grid and its reliance on fossil fuels brings it to breaking point.

Instead, the government must proactively put measures in place to ensure the grid can harness and accelerate the amount of renewable energy needed to meet climate targets.

Fortunately, grid issues can be mitigated in the short term by deploying new energy storage technologies to support the accelerated deployment of renewables.

Battery storage enables energy from renewables to be stored and then discharged when customers need power most, even if the wind is not blowing and the sun isn’t shining.  By integrating storage both into the grid and giving priority to those new renewable projects with storage components, it will be possible to improve the flexibility of the grid while also reducing emissions.

By re-examining not only the procedures for project approval, but the components that make up the grid, it will still be possible for the UK to meet our ambitious climate and energy goals, accelerate renewable deployment and avoid further reliance upon natural gas. We just need to get the rules right and allow ourselves to fully take advantage of new innovations that are commercially available today.