Forecasting Climate Change Impacts on Urban Electricity Distribution Network Loads

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Applied Mathematics)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES (Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
Element Energy

Collaborative Research & Development

Innovate UK

01 July 2015

31 March 2017

21 months

£243,869

East of England

Competition Call: 1412_CRD2_FUT_CIT_SUCD - Solving Urban Challenges with Data - CRD. Activity Solving urban challenges with data

Project Contact, Element Energy

Project Contact, Met Office

Project Contact, UK Power Networks (Operations) Limited

Growing electricity demand and on-site generation in urban areas means that urban electricity networks require significant reinforcement. Much of the 43 billion that distribution network operators (DNOs) in the UK are forecast to spend out to 2050 on reinforcing the electricity networks feeding UK homes and businesses is expected to be deployed in constrained urban areas. While DNOs currently have access to load forecasting tools to plan this investment process by specific region and individual asset, there is currently no way of quantifying how climate change impacts on demand (e.g. more summer cooling and less winter heating) and distributed generation (e.g. changing average solar insolation and wind levels) will influence the extent of urban network upgrades required. To solve this problem, we will research and develop a full commercial tool integrating Met Office climate forecast data with DNO load data to identify the size and network location of potential climate change load impacts on urban electricity networks, resolved to individual network assets (all London primary substations in the first instance) under various climate change scenarios.Growing electricity demand and on-site generation in urban areas means that urban electricity networks require significant reinforcement. Much of the 43 billion that distribution network operators (DNOs) in the UK are forecast to spend out to 2050 on reinforcing the electricity networks feeding UK homes and businesses is expected to be deployed in constrained urban areas. While DNOs currently have access to load forecasting tools to plan this investment process by specific region and individual asset, there is currently no way of quantifying how climate change impacts on demand (e.g. more summer cooling and less winter heating) and distributed generation (e.g. changing average solar insolation and wind levels) will influence the extent of urban network upgrades required. To solve this problem, we will research and develop a full commercial tool integrating Met Office climate forecast data with DNO load data to identify the size and network location of potential climate change load impacts on urban electricity networks, resolved to individual network assets (all London primary substations in the first instance) under various climate change scenarios.Growing electricity demand and on-site generation in urban areas means that urban electricity networks require significant reinforcement. Much of the 43 billion that distribution network operators (DNOs) in the UK are forecast to spend out to 2050 on reinforcing the electricity networks feeding UK homes and businesses is expected to be deployed in constrained urban areas. While DNOs currently have access to load forecasting tools to plan this investment process by specific region and individual asset, there is currently no way of quantifying how climate change impacts on demand (e.g. more summer cooling and less winter heating) and distributed generation (e.g. changing average solar insolation and wind levels) will influence the extent of urban network upgrades required. To solve this problem, we will research and develop a full commercial tool integrating Met Office climate forecast data with DNO load data to identify the size and network location of potential climate change load impacts on urban electricity networks, resolved to individual network assets (all London primary substations in the first instance) under various climate change scenarios.

01/12/17