ETI to investigate implications of network integration
The Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) is to investigate the implications for infrastructure of closer integration of the electricity, heat and transport networks in a new £300,000 project.
21st June 2016 by Networks
The ETI said the 11 month energy infrastructure project aims to improve the understanding of the opportunities for and implications of more integrated “multi-vector” networks, thereby informing the best way to deploy new networks and identifying the opportunities for existing assets.
In the future individual energy vectors such as electricity, gas and hydrogen are expected to be capable of delivering multiple services, with some services delivered by more than one network. This will potentially use infrastructure very differently to how it is today.
The ETI said the full benefit of closer integration will only be clear once the impacts on each part of the system are completely understood.
The project is part of its ongoing energy storage and distribution programme and will be led by low carbon energy consultants Element Energy, who will also be working with Baringa Partners, CHG Services and Liwacom.
ETI’s energy storage and distribution project manager Susie Winter said: “”Closer and more complex interactions between these different vectors, including partial or complete transitions from one vector to another, are a distinct opportunity.
“So far multi-vector energy systems analysis has focussed on generation or demand side technologies.
Element Energy director Alex Stewart said: “The project will provide valuable insights to network operators, technology developers and policymakers on the technical viability of this integration and the actions required to unlock these benefits in the future.”
The project is part of the ETI’s Future: Networks series analysing the nature, implications and evolution of energy networks as they adapt to manage fundamental long term changes in generation and demand within the context of a 2050 low-carbon future in the UK.
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