Security of decarbonised electricity systems
Research Theme 2 - Decarbonising Modern Societies
Project ID - T2.24
Primary contact: Prof Goran Strbac
The following information is currently available:
Technical summary
In the context of reducing CO2 emissions, the UK Government's 2010 targets for Renewables and CHP will make only a small (if symbolically important) contribution. A considerably larger proportion of renewable and other low carbon energy sources (e.g. fuel cells, micro CHP and possibly nuclear) will be required in order to respond to the climate change challenge over the longer time horizon. This new generation will displace the energy produced by large conventional plant, raising serious questions about the ability of such a system to manage the balance between supply and demand, and hence, to maintain the security of the electricity system . Currently, large conventional centrally controlled generators (coal, oil and gas fired, but not nuclear) play a vital role in managing the balance between load and generation in the operation time scale and hence maintaining a secure system. Clearly, meeting variable demand with intermittent, and/or uncontrolled and/or inflexible generation will be a major challenge for secure operation of sustainable electricity systems of the future. This issue was identified for further work in the recent PIU Energy Review and is directly relevant to the Tyndall Research Strategy.This inter-disciplinary proposal is to investigate the security of de-carbonised electricity systems with the following objectives:
(i) investigate how secure operation of a sustainable power system can be managed and maintained
(ii) investigate economic and environmental consequences of maintaining security in sustainable electricity system
(iii) investigate regulatory frameworks and design incentive schemes required to support the development of secure sustainable electricity systems.
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