Electricity Digitalisation
Electricity digitalisation and smart energy systems in the UK were the subjects of a recent Westminster Forum webinar. This post will explore ideas relating to digitalisation, why it is necessary, and how it might be accomplished. Background is provided by a 2017 report for decision makers in government and industry from the International Energy Agency which “examines the impact of digital technologies on energy demand sectors, looks at how energy suppliers can use digital tools to improve operations, and explores the transformational potential of digitalisation to help create a highly interconnected energy system” (IEA, 2017). Digital technologies are seen as having the potential to make energy systems worldwide “more connected, intelligent, efficient, reliable and sustainable” and to identify “who needs energy and deliver it at the right time, in the right place and at the lowest cost”, but they also raise new security and privacy risks, and challenge existing business models. There is a tension between the dynamic nature of energy systems and the inflexible characteristics of the infrastructure and assets upon which they are built.
Some key
headings in the IEA report are Smart demand response, System integration of
renewables, Distributed energy resources and Cyber security. Shifting or reducing electricity
demand can help to balance the grid, and is the subject of a later report where
it is viewed as having great potential to provide flexibility and reduce
infrastructure investment costs (IEA 2022). Digitalisation can help integrate
variable and distributed energy sources by enabling grids to “better match
energy demand to times when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing”. Digitalisation
can however make energy systems more vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and three key
security concepts are outlined; resilience, cyber hygiene and security by
design. Privacy and data ownership are major concerns for consumers, but aggregated
and anonymised individual energy use data can improve energy systems and help
lower costs for individual consumers; suitable policy is needed to balance
these issues. “Digitalisation can facilitate positive change, but only if
policy makers undertake efforts to understand, channel and harness
digitalisation’s impacts and to minimise its risks.” The report lists no-regrets
policy actions for governments: building digital expertise; ensuring
appropriate access to suitable data; building flexibility into policies to
accommodate new developments; using pilot projects; participating in
inter-agency discussions; focusing on overall system benefits; monitoring the
impacts of digitalisation on overall energy demand; incorporating digital
resilience into research, development and product manufacturing; facilitating
competition between companies; and learning from others.
A 2021 news
item reported that the European Commission had launched a roadmap for the digitalisation
of the energy sector and provided a link to the roadmap document (EU, 2021).
This reiterates some of the points made in IEA 2017, but enlarges interestingly
on certain problems. One of these is that without “an overall strategy that
exploits synergies between the various legal instruments and financial support
for data exchange projects at national and EU level, a fragmented approach is
likely to persist”, missing important links between different parts of the
energy supply chain. New digital solutions need to be “interoperable at EU
level” to avoid jeopardising “scalability, system integration, and
consumer/prosumer participation.” The roadmap also notes social challenges such
as lack of citizens’ trust in data-driven energy services and lack of adequate
skills, and growth in the energy consumption of Information and Communication Technologies
that might prove unsustainable.
In 2022 the
European Commission published “Digitalising the energy system - EU action plan”
which states that “To end the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, tackle
the climate crisis and ensure affordable access to energy for all, the European
Green Deal and REPowerEU require a deep digital and sustainable transformation
of our energy system”(EU 2022). The document lists in its annex a number of key
actions with time scales, grouped under the following headings: An EU framework
for sharing data; Promoting investments in digital electricity infrastructure; Ensuring
benefits for consumers: new services, skills and empowerment; Strengthening
cybersecurity and -resilience in the energy system; Controlling the energy
consumption of the ICT sector; and An EU-wide coordinated approach.
In the UK
the electricity distribution network operator UK Power Networks is “developing
and trialling a software-based, machine learning tool to enhance visibility and
unlock fresh insights into network demands so they can plan targeted investment
in infrastructure and enable flexible response to distribution-level conditions
and market signals” (Ofgem, 2021). This work is presented as a response to the
UK government’s legally binding targets for net zero by 2050, which implies a
transition to a renewables-based energy future. The challenges faced by
electricity network operators include limited historical data on loads at the
low voltage (distribution) ends of the network and “a high degree of
uncertainty when planning network interventions, such as building new
infrastructure and when designing new connections.” To provide appropriate data
is to ‘enhance visibility’ and allow better demand forecasting, advanced
planning, strategic investment and customer services. Minimising the investment
necessary to achieve the legally binding targets appears to be a central aim. Work
has been done on a proof of concept system for demand estimation modelling.
In 2022 the
UK government launched a feasibility study to explore the creation of a
“digital spine” for the energy system (Heynes, 2022). The study aims to assist
policy development for the digitalisation of the UK’s energy system, which
could improve energy security, help deliver net zero and reduce cost to the
consumer. Two project phases are
envisaged; the first addressing project scope and stakeholder engagement, and
the second exploring feasibility and delivery. The digital spine has been
described as “a thin layer of interaction and interoperability across all
players which enables a minimal layer of operation critical data to be
ingested, standardised and shared in near real time”. Its functions would be to
“facilitate efficient system operation, improve access to new markets and
support development of new services for a smart and flexible energy system.”
The digital spine was referred to earlier in a UK taskforce report on
digitalisation of the energy sector (BEIS, 2022a). Here it was set in the
context of delivering interoperability in the energy sector, and the study was
set to consider the “opportunities, risks and potential architectures”
associated with it, and “how it could interact with delivering a data sharing
fabric.” The concept is described in an invitation to tender for the study as
follows: “An energy system ‘digital spine’ is a framework of technical
processes and defined governance roles and responsibilities that allow the
exchange of energy system data in a secure and interoperable manner” (BEIS
2022b, p.26). Here the ability to exchange data is seen as a fundamental
feature of a digitalised energy system in which intermittent sources of
generation such as solar and wind will play a growing part, along with smart
technologies making use of low carbon energy, and where the swift exchange of
energy data in support of net zero objectives and energy flexibility will have
increasing importance.
The Westminster
Forum webinar referred to above cited a range of UK projects related to electricity
digitalisation, three of which will be outlined here, with emphasis on control
and optimisation methods. ReFLEX Orkney intends to provide Responsive Flexibility
in an integrated, affordable, low-carbon energy system in the Orkney Islands
(ReFLEX, 2023). The project is led by the European Marine Energy Centre and
aims “to interlink local electricity, transport and heat networks into one
controllable, overarching system, digitally connecting distributed and variable
renewable generation to flexible demand.” The technologies to be employed
include battery storage, electric vehicles, smart chargers and smart meters, which
will be leased to local households and businesses. Integration of some of the
separate elements of the system and automatic decision making within it will be
provided by SMS's FlexiGrid control platform. This is described by SMS plc as “cloud-based
software that communicates with, monitors and controls a range of distributed
energy resources (DERs) to create smart, flexible local energy systems.” ReFLEX
Orkney recognises the crucial role of the Orkney community: “Data collected
from the people, homes and businesses who host these new energy technologies,
in particular the human interaction with these assets, will provide a basis for
further research and continued focus” on decarbonisation of the energy system.
Energy
Superhub Oxford is a demonstrator project part-funded by the UK government’s
Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund under its “Prospering from the Energy
Revolution” programme (ESO, 2023).The PFER programme is about delivering innovation
in smart local energy systems (PFER, 2022). The project features “a giant
hybrid battery” and an electric vehicle (EV) charging network to encourage EV
uptake; the Council’s own fleet of vehicles are being electrified, and low
carbon heating is being installed in homes using small ‘shoebox’ ground source
heat pumps with smart controls. The EV charging hub developed by Energy
Superhub Oxford is described as Europe’s most powerful, delivering up to 10MW
of power, enough to charge 400 cars at once. EDF Renewables has installed the
UK’s first transmission-connected battery, a Lithium-ion/vanadium flow battery.
A combined energy management system controls and communicates with an Optimisation
and Trading Engine which underpins
the whole project, and will decide the optimum charge/discharge schedule for
the battery, enabling it to trade on the Day Ahead and Intraday markets and the
Balancing Mechanism.
The Greater
Manchester Local Energy Market is described as “the first project of its kind
to be delivered at scale across a city-region”. It is funded by InnovateUK and
11 partners, and sets out to help Greater Manchester achieve its target of
becoming a zero-carbon emissions city region by 2038 (Regen, 2023). There are
two key themes: an approach to Local Area Energy Planning which integrates the
demands of the energy transition with traditional local authority-led planning,
and the development of a new Local Energy Market supporting the integration of
new smart technologies across the heat, power and transport sectors. The
project requires the development of new digital tools, and details are given in
a separate document (GMPFER, n.d.). The capabilities
of the required digital energy platform include control, optimisation, dispatch
and trading in a local energy market and integration with other local control
platforms, such as those operated by the Distribution Network Operator, who
provides constraint management locally and interfaces with the national
transmission system. Other functions of the digital energy platform are provision
of rolling 24 hour forecasts of renewable energy generation, half-hourly
updates of wholesale market price forecasts, optimal dispatch plans for given
sites, control of storage in order to maximise income and minimise energy imports,
and real-time monitoring of asset behaviour in order to update forward planning.
Upside Energy describe their cloud-based smart grid platform as easing
peak-time pressure “by connecting a range of common devices that store energy”.
The platform “aggregates the energy stored in everyday connected devices, such
as batteries and hot water tanks, to create a virtual energy store that can be
drawn on as needed. Devices in homes and small businesses can then be quickly
switched on or off at the right times, communicating through the Internet of
Things” (Upside Energy, 2022).
References
BEIS, 2022a,
Energy Digitalisation Taskforce report: joint response by BEIS, Ofgem and
Innovate UK, BEIS July 2022, online, accessed 25 Feb 2023
BEIS, 2022b,
Energy system ‘digital spine’ feasibility study, BEIS Nov. 2022, online,
accessed 25 Feb 2023
ESO, 2023, Energy
Superhub Oxford, online, accessed 9 Feb 2023
https://energysuperhuboxford.org/
EU, 2021, Action plan on the digitalisation of
the energy sector – roadmap launched, European Commission, online, accessed 25
Feb 2023
EU, 2022, Digitalising the energy system - EU
action plan, European Commission, online, accessed 25 Feb 2023
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022DC0552&qid=1666369684560
GMPRER, n.d.,
PFER: Local Energy Market Proposal, Greater Manchester, online, accessed 21 Feb
2023
https://democracy.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/documents/s2711/Local%20Energy%20Market%20Bid%208.pdf
Heynes, G.,
2022, UK government launches ‘digital spine’ feasibility study, Current News, Oct
2022, online, accessed 21 Feb 2023
IEA, 2017, Digitalisation and Energy,
International Energy Agency, Nov 2017, online, accessed 25 Feb 2023
https://www.iea.org/reports/digitalisation-and-energy
IEA 2022, Demand Response, International Energy
Agency, Sept 2022, online, accessed 25 Feb 2023
https://www.iea.org/reports/demand-response
Ofgem, 2021,
Case study (UK): Digitalising energy systems for net zero, Ofgem, online,
accessed 22 Feb 2023
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/case-study-uk-digitalising-energy-systems-net-zero
PFER, 2022, Industrial
Strategy Challenge Fund Prospering from the Energy Revolution (PFER) explained,
InnovateUK, online, accessed 21 Feb 2023
ReFLEX, 2023,
ReFLEX Orkney, online, accessed 21 Feb 2023
https://www.reflexorkney.co.uk/
Regen, 2023,
Greater Manchester Local Energy Market, Regen, online, accessed 8 Feb 2023
https://www.regen.co.uk/project/gmlem/
Upside
Energy, 2022, A cloud-based smart grid platform, Upside Energy, online,
accessed 28 Feb 2023
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