TransEnergy - Road to Rail Energy Exchange (R2REE)

Completed

Energy Efficiency(Transport)
Not Energy Related
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)
Other Power and Storage Technologies(Energy storage)

Basic and strategic applied research

SOCIAL SCIENCES (Business and Management Studies)
SOCIAL SCIENCES (Sociology)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting
Systems Analysis related to energy R&D (Energy modelling)
Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour)

Dr DA Stone
Electronic and Electrical Engineering
University of Sheffield

Standard

EPSRC

01 August 2016

31 July 2021

60 months

£1,520,589

Energy

Yorkshire & Humberside

Energy : Energy

Dr DA Stone, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield

Dr A Cruden, Faculty of Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton
Dr DI Fletcher, Mechanical Engineering, University of Sheffield
Dr MP Foster, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield
Dr D Gladwin, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield
Professor RF Harrison, Automatic Control and Systems Engineering, University of Sheffield
Professor SCL Koh, Management School, University of Sheffield
Mr JD Shires, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds
Professor ASJ Smith, Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds

The focus of the research proposed is on electrically powered rail transport systems and electric road vehicles (EVs), and extends to the power supply network which supports them. The convergence over coming years of both road and rail transport on electric power with reduced dependence on fossil fuels offers great potential benefits, but also has risks from dependence on a single fuel type and peak demand stress on its underlying supply network. Although fossil fuels have environmental drawbacks they have the advantage of offering inherent energy storage, thereby desynchronising time of energy use from its supply, and smoothing demands on the supply network. This is not the case for electricity use in which there are currently only limited means to smooth and reduce demand.The proposed research addresses both the technology to store electric energy in a form suited to transport use, and the modelling to understand how to use the technology to reduce overall energy demand. Transport energy demand reduction can be viewed at two timescales: (i) a twice daily demand caused by rush hour commuting, and (ii) minute by minute variations in demand as required by individual vehicles. Both timescales pose tractable research questions which can be addressed by energy storage. The work will examine the technical issues surrounding the use of both new batteries, and second life (old) EV batteries as line-side storage. This study will be complimented and enhanced with the addition of research on through-life environmental issues, and the consumer acceptance and legislatory constraints surrounding this use. In addition, the novel use of EVs in a road to rail (R2R) energy exchange scenario will provide an opportunity to explore the use of in-car EV batteries as energy storage when parked in rail station car parks, and address the implications of this use on the consumers, together with the consumer acceptability.The research will be accomplished through eight interrelated work packages:WP1: Techno-economic supply chain analysis of energy storage technologies for application in UK rail and road transportWP2: Optimising transport network operation for R2R energy exchangeWP3: Power network simulationWP4: Versatile line-side storage demonstrationWP5: Demonstrator data analysis and second-life EV batteryWP6: Attractiveness to users and incentives for implementationWP7: R2R Communications, control and interfacingWP8: Project Management

21/02/19