Energy Systems

We’re going to spend much of this week looking  at the value proposition for V2G but before we do   it is important to understand the context of  the energy system in which V2G participates.  

I’m going to start with a quote from the  recent IPCC’s sixth assessment report:   “it is unequivocal that human influence  has warmed the atmosphere ocean and land   widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere  ocean cryosphere and biosphere have occurred”.   It is clear that carbon dioxide emissions from the  burning of fossil fuels is causing climate change   over recent decades fossil fuel emissions from  electricity generation have had a significant   impact this has been the primary driver for recent  changes that we see in the energy systems. In fact   there are numerous transitions going  on in energy systems at the moment   but in this talk I’m going to talk  about four of the most important ones.  

Firstly fossil dispatchable generation to  renewable intermittent generation now by   dispatchable I mean generation that can be  controlled so you can turn it on off up down   whenever you like and conversely intermittent this  can’t be can’t be controlled or not in the same   way at least and cannot generate continuously  this has all been driven by carbon reduction.

Next central generation to distributed generation  - renewables are put where the resource is found   whereas central generation was put in locations  that were more convenient for the electricity   system or for imports of fossil fuels also we’re  seeing smaller generation now on the network and   that can be more spread out so there’s no need  to have things in one or two central locations.

Next consumer to prosumer electricity used  to flow from central generation down to the   consumers now with distributed generation at  different points in the network that means that   some energy can be generated locally and means it  can flow bi-directionally down some of the lines   demand used to be fixed now it can be  changed to fit intermittent generation.

Finally the transition towards electrified   heat and transport driven by  carbon and pollution reduction   here we find that transport is being increasingly  electrified as well as heat significant   increases are happening with the loading on  the electricity network due to this effect.

These transitions have significant  implications for how the energy system operates   and what is needed to keep things operating safely  and securely. Firstly network capacity issues   these can arise because generation is  now cited in new locations and the next   electricity network wasn’t designed to cope with  generations in these locations additionally heat   and transport are creating further demand on  the network which is increasing this loading.

The next one is increased need for flexibility   now the closure of fossil fuel plants means that  these plants that were flexible are now no longer   on the system and we are losing that source  of flexibility so that’s creating a need for   replacing flexibility on the system furthermore  the intermittency of renewables increases that   need more as we need to be able to match  demanded generation at the same time.

And finally increase power price volatility   generation for renewables is driven by weather  rather than demand causing excesses and shortages   at different times of the year running  hours on conventional generation is reduced   meaning they need to recover greater cost in  the lower number of running hours this can   result in more expensive energy from them when  they do generate and finally again smarter grids   additional monitoring is needed to  incorporate more distributed generation   advances in monitoring and communication means  controlling demand and generation and console grid   issues rather than reinforcing the network.  These implications create opportunities for   innovative flexible technology that can be part of  a smarter cleaner and more flexible energy system.