Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry has launched four smart energy systems demonstrator projects across the UK, in a bid to help towns and cities become “hubs” to spur the low-carbon transition across the electricity, heat, cooling and transport sectors. The first of the schemes is an “Energy Superhub” in Oxford, which will play host to the world’s first transmission-connected 50MW lithium ion and redox-flow hybrid battery systems as well as a network of 320 ground-source heat pumps. The electricity and energy from the facility will be used to heat and power around 300 social homes, with Cloud software and Artificial Intelligence (AI) set to be used to help the facility optimise demand and supply. It is estimated that each property powered by the hub will see a 25% reduction in its annual energy demand. Also in Oxford, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks will work to install around 90 small-scale low-carbon energy projects, which will be connected under a distribution System Operator approach to form a “local energy marketplace”. The network will enable peer-to-peer energy trading among participants and aims to “unlock” flexibility across the City-region. The other two new projects are a Virtual Energy System (VES) in Orkney, which aims to interlink local electricity, transport and heat networks into one system, thereby optimising efficiency and lowering emissions, and a virtual power plant which will be used to manage energy across council housing, private residential properties, transport infrastructure and commercial properties in West Sussex.
Edie 3rd April 2019 read more »
