Future Energy Mix
The dramatic cuts in CO2 in the whole economy, and electricity sector in particular, envisaged by the UK Climate Change Committee require radical changes: incremental changes are most unlikely to deliver this policy objective. This work-stream investigates the radical changes necessary for major CO2 reductions and examines the implications for the energy networks through 5 projects. The first project addresses the demand placed on the electricity system in GB from the increased use of electricity as the vector for energy transmission and distribution. This overlaps with the scenarios work we report in section 1.5 (including the Long-term Electricity Network Scenarios (LENS) project).
Since the FlexNet programme was defined in 2007, there has been rapidly increasing interest in the use of electricity for road vehicles. The second project looks at how significantly increased electricity use should be accommodated within the GB power system. In light of the CCC reports, the task now includes greater emphasis of vehicles alongside building heating via heat pumps.
The third project on integrated local distribution of gas/heat/electricity has reviewed literature from the three domains and has established a heat flow model ready to integrate with other network models and optimise. The fourth project addresses the implications of new low carbon energy systems (Renewables, CCS and Nuclear) on bulk energy transmission networks. Integrated gas and electricity models have been developed and again this will move to optimisation next. A fifth project seeks to make available data sets for various resources in this rapidly evolving area.
Work-stream Leader
Professor Nick Jenkins
Cardiff School of Engineering
Queen's Buildings, The Parade
Cardiff University
Cardiff, CF24 3AA, Wales, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 29 2087 4428
Email: JenkinsN6@cardiff.ac.uk