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On Carts and Horses: Transmission Investment, Zonal Pricing, and the Case for a Structured Process of Congestion Review
6 days ago
This blog was originally published by Imperial College London.
Collaboration is key to making meaningful change in the energy sector, and Imperial is at the heart of convening the right people.
That was one of the big takeaways from an important event featuring some of Imperial’s biggest industry partners in the sector, SSE, ScottishPower and Schneider Electric, all three of which are part of the university’s corporate membership programme Imperial Business Partners.
Prefaced by Imperial’s Professor Rob Gross in his role as the Director of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), who is also part of the UK’s Clean Power 2030 Commission, the event focused on the role of innovation and effective market-based competition – supported by policy and customer needs – in order to ensure sustainable benefits for the energy sector.
In his overview of the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, including data explaining the current state of play and the future needs, Professor Gross said: “Achieving the government’s goals requires a multi-faceted approach, focusing not only on deploying clean generation technologies but also on ensuring grid infrastructure can support this transition.”
The core discussion in the panel turned towards how the scale of the challenge to achieve the targets is significant, but that companies working in this and other infrastructure and networks organisations are looking long-term.
Tom Williamson, Head of Innovation at ScottishPower, explained how the company is investing large sums towards a wide range of projects, primarily related to improving the grid infrastructure and transmission from power generation sites to consumers. “Iberdrola, ScottishPower’s parent company, has committed £24 billion in UK investment by 2028, targeting both renewable capacity and grid resilience.”
Schneider Electric is partnering with Sustainable Development Capital LLP (SDCL) to provide decentralised power solutions to companies across the UK and Ireland, focusing on energy efficiency technologies and microgrid solutions. “Technological innovation is a key enabler for reaching the 2030 Clean Power targets, but it must be coupled with social and policy innovation to ensure a just and sustainable transition,” said Layton Hill, Schneider Electric’s Vice President Strategy.
He added: “Supply and demand are both important, and we take a holistic view of innovation. Product is important, yes, but also business models and how we approach different customers to get there.”
“When we look at innovation, we see it in three ways,” added Dr Carolyn Hicks, Co-Founder of Imperial startup Brill Power. “Technological innovation, centred around patents or immediate applications or current tech; skills and people development in order to future-proof this sector; and the economic and market drive of different geographies, ensuring products are fit for users.”
Investing across the chain is crucial to ensuring that not only is energy created, but it gets to where it’s needed, in an affordable and sustainable way. Dr Gianna Huhn, SSE’s Head of Academic Partnerships, explained that within the next five years the company will be in a position to treble its renewable energy generation capacity to over 31GW per year by 2031, driven both by market demand and increased application of innovation.
“There’s a lot of major changes coming down the line that will change the energy system fundamentally,” she said, adding: “but to reel it back a bit, there’s a lot to be said about incremental innovation, including how market dynamics and policy help us to build better, faster and cheaper, particularly around meeting the 2030 targets.”
Among innovations from Imperial explored at the event, Imperial-based spinouts and startups BladeBUG, Nodum, RFC Power, AED Energy joined Brill Power in highlighting the potentially game-changing technologies being developed at the university.
The Grantham Institute’s Dr Gbemi Oluleye explained how innovative partnerships like those with SSE, ScottishPower and Schneider Electric enable deployment of technology and expertise spanning both the scientific and policy and regulation spheres for the benefit of companies, consumers and can help us achieve the Clean Power 2030 targets.
“Market-based mechanisms are crucial to make decarbonization solutions economically viable for energy-intensive industries. This will drive investment and accelerate the adoption of clean technologies,” she said, adding: “Partnerships between industry and academia are vital for fostering innovation and ensuring that new clean technologies can be deployed effectively and at scale.”
With the formal launch of Imperial’s groundbreaking Schools of Convergence Science (SCS) taking place this summer, event host Alyssa Gilbert, Director of Undaunted and Co-Director of the SCS for Sustainability invited attendees to share their thoughts on some of the initial missions and themes for the School, especially around the energy sector.
For more information about the schools and their missions, check out the dedicated webpage.