In-depth: How a smart flexible grid could save the UK £40bn
This article was originally published by Carbon Brief on 25th July 2017.A smart, flexible electricity grid could help the UK cut carbon more cheaply, saving up to £40bn between now and 2050.
That’s according to research by the Carbon Trust and Imperial College London, which was commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). It is part of the evidence behind the government’s Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, published jointly with the energy regulator Ofgem. This plan aims to facilitate a smarter grid through a series of technical and regulatory changes.
Carbon Brief looks at the potential savings from a flexible grid and the BEIS plan to unlock them.
Flexible grid
The UK’s electricity system is in the midst of a rapid transition. Just over a year ago, a member survey for industry trade group Energy UK talked of a “revolution” in the sector and the potential for “a complete paradigm shift in how the power sector operates”.
The UK’s electricity grid – historically, made up of a handful of large, centralised power stations – has in recent years added thousands of smaller, mainly renewable power schemes. In order to meet its legally binding carbon targets, the UK will add many more wind and solar farms, while electric vehicles and electric home heating could add to demand, particularly during peak periods.
Yet wind and solar output varies with the weather, leading critics to say a renewable grid will be saddled with a costly bill for backup. This bill might include building power plants designed to run only infrequently, providing electricity during peak periods or when there is little wind.
Costs might also arise from paying wind or solar farms to switch off, when the grid is too congested to carry all the power they produce, or when demand is already covered by the relatively inflexible output from nuclear plants.
Last year, the National Infrastructure Commission said a “smart power revolution“, making use of interconnectors to other countries, flexible demand and electricity storage, could keep these costs to a minimum, potentially saving up to £8bn a year by 2030.
The new Imperial College London report looks at these hoped-for savings in more detail, exploring how the potential benefits of a flexible grid might change if its components are more or less expensive and if demand for electricity is higher or lower than expected.
The report says:
“Quantifying these benefits is very complex due to uncertainties in how the future energy system will evolve, and the projected cost and availability of different flexibility options. Yet, despite these uncertainties, key investment decisions need to be made in the short-term, which will have a lasting impact on Great Britain’s future energy system.”
