Achieving EV charging consensus
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Features
Achieving the right climate
The electricity and gas networks will play a key role in helping to deliver climate change. But what are some of the challenges they’re facing and how can the networks meet these ambitious targets? Editor Alec Peachey spoke to a number of the network operators to find out about the work they’re doing in this area. Below are some of the questions asked, and the answers we heard.
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Accelerating innovation
Substation monitoring has been an area of interest amongst distribution network operators (DNOs) for some time, as the way consumers use and interact with the network changes due to the relatively rapid growth of photovoltaic installations, electric vehicles, domestic-level battery storage and so on. Before these relatively new technologies were widely adopted, it was sufficient to manually record a reading from an analogue maximum demand indicator during a physical inspection once or twice a year, but this is no longer considered sufficient by many in the industry who are now interested in annual and diurnal patterns, harmonics and more.
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Accelerating the EV revolution
Clean air day quietly came and went this summer, buried in political drama. It’s over a year since air quality in the UK was declared “unlawful” yet the public health crisis continues.
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A pivotal year for the heat network sector
Both the UK and Scottish Governments have highlighted the important role that heat networks will play in the transition to a low-carbon energy system, with the Clean Growth Strategy stating that they could provide between 17-24 per cent of the UK’s heat demand.
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A platform-based approach to distribution operations
The energy landscape today is undergoing significant transformation as distribution network operators (DNOs) continue making the transition towards distribution system operators (DSOs). Led by widespread growth of distributed generation – including 27.0GW of installed rooftop solar capacity globally in 2017(1) – along with battery storage, electric vehicles (EVs), and other forms of distributed energy resources (DERs), DSOs face significant changes to the traditional energy delivery model. Coupled with an evolving regulatory framework, in order to continue to provide safe, reliable, and affordable grid services, DSOs are looking at new, modern approaches to safely connect, model, manage and optimise customer DERs within the overall network.
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A whole new world
Whether you agree with its conclusions or not, the Cost of Energy Review lays out a clear, and at times sobering, review of the development of the electricity sector over the last 50 years and its present complicated structure. For those of us who have been arguing that we need radical change it certainly offers that. It covers all aspects of electricity supply but I’m going to look at the proposals for networks which are probably more far reaching than for other areas, even if they have received less attention.
A magazine is born – welcome to Network!
A short quarter of a century ago, momentous changes in the structure and regulation of UK utilities spurred the launch of a tenacious industry journal – Utility Week. It was introduced as a resource to help executives, investors and regulators understand and anticipate the effects of privatisation and it has endured as a voice for and mirror to the industry through good times and bad.
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A material difference
As the name implies, self-healing materials are those that will repair themselves if damaged, much like how a cut will clot, heal over and eventually fade. It can be imagined that these materials would be of great use in network assets that are difficult or impossible to access, and for those assets that are vital to network function.
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A modern approach to network automation
Substation technology is continually evolving and improving. It’s changing to accommodate the complex challenges that have arisen from (and are driving) decarbonised, digitised and decentralised power distribution systems. Increasingly, this means that modern electrical distribution technology is imbued with new digital features.
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