Scenarios for the development of smart grids in the UK: synthesis report

‘Smart grid’ is a catch-all term for the smart options that could transform the ways society produces, delivers and consumes energy, and potentially the way we conceive of these services. Delivering energy more intelligently will be fundamental to decarbonising the UK electricity system at least possible cost, while maintaining security and reliability of supply. Smarter energy delivery is expected to allow the integration of more low carbon technologies and to be much more cost effective than traditional methods, as well as contributing to economic growth by opening up new business and innovation opportunities. Innovating new options for energy system management could lead to cost savings of up to £10bn, even if low carbon technologies do not emerge. This saving will be much higher if UK renewable energy targets are achieved. Building on extensive expert feedback and input, this report describes four smart grid scenarios which consider how the UK’s electricity system might develop to 2050. The scenarios outline how political decisions, as well as those made in regulation, finance, technology, consumer and social behaviour, market design or response, might affect the decisions of other actors and limit or allow the availability of future options. The project aims to explore the degree of uncertainty around the current direction of the electricity system and the complex interactions of a whole host of factors that may lead to any one of a wide range of outcomes. Our addition to this discussion will help decision makers to understand the implications of possible actions and better plan for the future, whilst recognising that it may take any one of a number of forms

Review of techniques to enable community-scale demand response strategy design

Incorporating demand side flexibility can aid in integrating intermittent renewable energy generation and reducing the electricity grid’s operational costs. Buildings have the potential to provide demand response (DR) with minimal disruption to activities by leveraging the inherent energy storage in their heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Harnessing this flexibility whilst minimising energy consumption and maintaining thermal comfort requires control strategies capable of incorporating these objectives, making model-predictive control (MPC) a promising framework. To elucidate the control techniques available to harness the HVAC flexibility of collections of buildings to participate in electricity markets, this paper reviews the current state of literature describing MPC techniques for community-scale control. The reviewed studies were classified based the following characteristics: the general aim of the MPC approach, objective function, thermal response model, amount and type of buildings considered, DR type, control structure, solving tools and techniques, and the energy, cost savings or flexibility achieved. The review shows that MPC strategies can successfully provide many types of DR indicating the versatility of the control approach. Decentralised control approaches reduced the complexity of the large-scale control problem whilst providing more autonomy to individual users. However, compared to centralised approaches, decentralised control led to lower amounts of flexibility. Lastly, few studies validated the performance of their controller in either simulation or physical environments. Therefore, the review suggests further research is needed to study and validate the performance the of different MPC control structures considering various community types and concurrent participation in various DR schemes

Enabling Innovation In The Energy System Transition

Innovation in the electric sector has the potential to drive job growth, decrease environmental impacts, reduce rate payer costs, and increase reliability and resiliency. However, the traditional electric system was built to deliver a controlled flow of energy from a centralized location with maximum reliability and minimum cost. As both customer expectations and generation technologies change, new avenues for grid innovation are being explored. Residential customers, commercial and industrial clients, and electric utilities must all find a way to balance goals for decarbonization and social justice with maintaining a least cost, reliable power grid. Grounded in Geel’s energy system transition framework, this dissertation explores how each of these three stakeholder groups is navigating the transition to renewables. The first study tests the idea that residential customers will be more inclined to change their behavior when altruistically contributing to a greater goal. Renewed Darwinian theory was explored to question the exclusive use of financial incentives in demand response programs, with evidence that enabling altruism may influence electricity demand even more effectively than traditional financial incentives. A difference in differences approach was designed to test the impact of the Burlington Electric Department’s Defeat the Peak program on residential energy use where the incentive was a group donation to a local charity. Results suggest utility savings of over $12 in energy supply costs for every$1 they invested in the program. Financial levers, however, can be quite effective in influencing electricity demand, and may result in cost-shifting from high to low demand consumers. The second study focused on rate design for commercial and industrial customers through an analysis of the utility demand charge. For over a century the demand charge has been a primary means to recover total cost-of-service including fixed, embedded, and overhead costs. Under the current system, most small commercial and residential customers do not receive a strong direct price signal to invest in storage, load shifting, or renewables. Larger commercial and industrial customers exercise some measure of control over their loads to reduce demand charges, but with only modest benefit or value to the system as a whole. The system costs are then redistributed to all customer classes, potentially falling disproportionately on low demand customers. To investigate, a regression analysis was conducted with cost and market characteristics from 447 US electric utilities. Results suggest that demand charges predict a significant degree of variability in residential pricing, confirming suspected cost shifting. Redesigning the demand charge could open up new markets for renewable energy entrepreneurs and lower grid costs and customer rates, supporting goals of decarbonization while also achieving reliable least-cost power. In the third study, an iterative approach was employed to understand why some utilities lean into the energy system transition while others take a more conservative stance. A database of 170 US electric utilities was constructed including a qualitative assessment of Integrated Resource Plans for renewability orientation. Institutional resource-based theory was utilized to take a striated approach to understanding firm heterogeneity, identifying factors at the individual manager level, firm level, and external environment that can influence a utility’s energy supply characteristics. Independent variables in a simultaneous regression analysis included CEO gender and tenure at the individual level, ownership structure and firm age at the firm level, and the impact of policies and state rurality at the inter-firm level. Results indicate that a significant amount of a utility’s commitment to the renewable energy transition can be predicted based on these firm characteristics

Demand response performance and uncertainty: A systematic literature review

The present review has been carried out, resorting to the PRISMA methodology, analyzing 218 published articles. A comprehensive analysis has been conducted regarding the consumer's role in the energy market. Moreover, the methods used to address demand response uncertainty and the strategies used to enhance performance and motivate participation have been reviewed. The authors find that participants will be willing to change their consumption pattern and behavior given that they have a complete awareness of the market environment, seeking the optimal decision. The authors also find that a contextual solution, giving the right signals according to the different behaviors and to the different types of participants in the DR event, can improve the performance of consumers' participation, providing a reliable response. DR is a mean of demand-side management, so both these concepts are addressed in the present paper. Finally, the pathways for future research are discussed.This article is a result of the project RETINA (NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000062), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). We also acknowledge the work facilities and equipment provided by GECAD research center (UIDB/00760/2020) to the project team, and grants CEECIND/02887/2017 and SFRH/BD/144200/2019.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ten questions concerning energy flexibility in buildings

Funding Information: The authors are key collaborators in the IEA EBC Annex 82 project. Dr. Li leads IEA EBC Annex 82 “Energy Flexible Buildings Towards Resilient Low Carbon Energy Systems.” Mr. Satchwell researches utility regulatory and business models that achieve greater deployment of energy efficiency, demand flexibility, and other distributed energy resources. Prof. Finn investigates demand response measures in the residential and commercial building sectors. Senior researcher Christensen researches the role of users in smart energy solutions and low-carbon energy transitions. Prof. Michaël Kummert's research focuses on modeling and control of building-scale and community-scale energy systems to optimize energy flexibility and resilience. Dr. Le Dréau researches energy flexibility of buildings both at building and district scales, develops occupant behavior models and prediction techniques related to flexibility. Dr. Lopes is involved in two international projects funded by the European Union's H2020 programme where he is developing and applying energy flexibility characterization methodologies and optimization algorithms in several demonstration activities. Prof. Madsen leads a national research project ‘Energy Flexible Denmark’ and he focuses on grey-box modeling, digital twins, forecasting and control for smart buildings in smart grids. Dr. Salom research works focus on zero/positive energy buildings and districts and their interaction with energy infrastructures being involved in several international projects. Prof. Henze researches model predictive and reinforcement learning control and data analytics for the integration of building and district energy systems with the electric grid. Mr. Wittchen research works focus on zero/positive energy buildings and districts and implementation of European legislation on building's energy performance. Funding Information: The authors acknowledge the many organizations that directly or indirectly supported the completion of this article. We acknowledge the European Commission for the ARV (grant number 101036723 ), Syn.ikia (grant number 869918 ), Hestia (grant number 957823 ) projects; the Danish Energy Agency for supporting the Danish delegates participating IEA EBC Annex 82 through EUDP (grant number 64020-2131 ); Innovation Fund Denmark in relation to SEM4Cities ( IFD 0143–0004 ) and Flexible Energy Denmark ( IFD 8090-00069B ); the Building Technologies Office, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, at the US Department of Energy , under Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (contract number DE-AC02-05CH11231 ); the Center of Technology and Systems (CTS UNINOVA) and the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Strategic Program UIDB/00066/2020 ; Research Council of Norway in relation to Research Centre on Zero Emission Neighborhoods in Smart Cities - FME-ZEN (No. 2576609 ) and FlexBuild (No. 294920 ); the AGAUR Agency from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the project ComMit-20 ( 2020PANDE00116 ); the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC Discovery Grant RGPIN 2016-06643 ). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The AuthorsDemand side energy flexibility is increasingly being viewed as an essential enabler for the swift transition to a low-carbon energy system that displaces conventional fossil fuels with renewable energy sources while maintaining, if not improving, the operation of the energy system. Building energy flexibility may address several challenges facing energy systems and electricity consumers as society transitions to a low-carbon energy system characterized by distributed and intermittent energy resources. For example, by changing the timing and amount of building energy consumption through advanced building technologies, electricity demand and supply balance can be improved to enable greater integration of variable renewable energy. Although the benefits of utilizing energy flexibility from the built environment are generally recognized, solutions that reflect diversity in building stocks, customer behavior, and market rules and regulations need to be developed for successful implementation. In this paper, we pose and answer ten questions covering technological, social, commercial, and regulatory aspects to enable the utilization of energy flexibility of buildings in practice. In particular, we provide a critical overview of techniques and methods for quantifying and harnessing energy flexibility. We discuss the concepts of resilience and multi-carrier energy systems and their relation to energy flexibility. We argue the importance of balancing stakeholder engagement and technology deployment. Finally, we highlight the crucial roles of standardization, regulation, and policy in advancing the deployment of energy flexible buildings.publishersversionpublishe

Connecting the Dots: Linking Sustainable Wild Capture Fisheries Initiatives and Impact Investors

Wilderness Markets undertook a series of fishery value chain assessments to better understand the opportunities and constraints for private impact capital to flow into wild capture fisheries markets. Given the investments in developing sustainable fisheries pilots, Wilderness Markets expected to identify a range of investment opportunities in each of the fisheries assessed. However, they did not find investment opportunities that could address the suite of challenges associated with improving financial and social outcomes, while also contributing to conservation outcomes, particularly in developing country fisheries. Wilderness Markets' research indicates the lack of triple-bottom line (TBL) investment opportunities is due to six main constraints to an economically sustainable fisheries value chain—data, management, market differentiation, infrastructure, finance and the lack of investable entities

Ushering in a New Dawn : Demand-Side Local Flexibility Platform Governance and Design in the Finnish Energy Markets

Energy ecosystems are under a significant transition. Local flexibility marketplaces (LFM) and platforms are argued to have significant potential in contributing to such a transition. The purpose of this study was to answer the following research question: how do market conditions and stakeholders shape emerging LFM platform governance choices? We approached this objective with an exploratory single-case study by conducting ten semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in the Finnish energy ecosystem. The results of the content and pattern analyses revealed the key challenges to LFM implementation such as the current regulatory treatment of flexibility, high costs of gadget installations, and ensuring sufficient liquidity in the market. In addition, we also demonstrated that despite such barriers, the Finnish ecosystem is largely pragmatic about LFMs’ in its midst. All in all, we contributed to the non-technological streams of LFM literature by developing an exhaustive framework with four distinctive dimensions (i.e., ecosystem readiness, value-creation logic, platform architecture and governance, platform competitiveness) for LFM development, which helps academics, practitioners, and policy-makers to understand how novel platforms emerge and develop.© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed