Shifting Currents

Project Summary

This project will meet the challenge of Preparing for a Net Zero Power System, specifically accessing novel grid/system support from the operations of the drinking and wastewater networks of water utilities.

It will build on the pioneering partnership between NGED and South West Water in the FLOWERS NIA project. This feasibility project investigated the potential to adjust the timing and control of water network operations in response to the electricity network. The electricity demand shifted to different times of the day would fulfil several use cases: reducing peak demand in constrained network areas, reducing the carbon intensity of water network demand and reducing need for curtailment of renewable generation.

The aim of the project is to innovate on the interoperability between electricity and water networks to embed whole systems thinking and flexibility in the connections of water network sites to the distribution network. It will design and trial the commercial and technical process required to access operational flexibility in the pumping demand of water networks.

It will demonstrate a unique collaboration between regulated utilities which can double stack benefits for customers served by both electricity and water networks: adding a widely accessible source of flexibility to reduce constraints on existing and potentially constrained networks, while enabling water networks' drive to net zero. This collaboration would be a template for replication countrywide, allowing all UK water and distribution network connected customers to benefit from this area.

NGED will be the lead partner, continuing on in this role as the DNO lead in the initial NIA feasibility study, building on a legacy in the development, trial and rollout of flexibility.

UKPN will be the supporting DNO, with its own track record in flexibility and operating the network with significant crossover with water partners. Smart Grid Consultancy will be the main technical partner, having delivered multiple flexibility innovation projects such as Intraflex.

The water company partners will be Pennon Group (which includes South West Water, Bristol Water and Bournemouth Water), Anglian Water and Severn Trent Water. Each have experience Operating the reservoirs, treatment works, water mains and sewers within the Water Supply and Sewerage Services areas for which they are the licence holders. All are committed to achieving net zero in their operations.

• Problem(s)

  Electrical demand curves from water operations align with distribution networks, with peaks in the morning and evening. Water operations are therefore a proportion of the demand at high congestion periods on distribution networks. Concurrently, water utilities have committed to achieve net zero in their operations. Due to the carbon inherent within the matter processed by water networks, net zero solutions for water utilities must include off set, a proportion of which will be connecting or enabling additional renewable generation.

  UK water networks have historically had low participation in DNO flexibility, as the financial benefits from flexibility products do not provide sufficient incentive for them to do so. This project aims to solve this problem by developing a new kind of flexibility embedded within the timing and control of water network pumping. Unlike electricity demand, where distribution can only take place as electrical energy is consumed, water pumping only needs to take place such that water is available at time of consumption or treatment. This latency between pumping and consumption can potentially be exploited through a novel partnership between DNO and water utility in which the carbon benefits and renewable generation capacity unlocked are provided back to water networks to set against net zero targets.

• Innovation Justification

  This project will pilot two core innovations: the technical and operational process for embedding this flexibility, and the commercial agreement which enables it. FLOWERS has produced initial learning on the feasibility of these innovations. However, the assumptions of replicability across the UK need to be tested and there was no real-life demonstration. Doing so carries significant risk due to the technical challenges to be overcome, such as coordinating between up and downstream water sites or accurately forecasting generation intensity and risk of curtailment.

  These innovations are significantly different than typical DNO flexibility procurement, and the development of this capability is not within the capacity of these BAU activities.

  FLOWERS has identified between 18 and 34 MW of potential flexible demand on SWW's network alone, estimating a potential value of around E5, OOO per hour at the most common current flexibility product rate. With the incentives described above, this value would be a saving when compared with procuring the same amount of flexibility at that rate. Furthermore, aligning pump demand with peak generation has the potential to reduce the cost of increase the capacity for and penetration of distributed energy resources.

• Key Outputs and Learnings

  Shifting Currents was aimed at meeting the challenge of Preparing for a Net Zero Power System, specifically accessing novel/grid system support from the operations of the drinking and wastewater networks of water utilities.

  The project built upon the FLOWERS NIA project, which investigated the potential to embed load shifting behaviour in the timing and control of water network operations through non-fiscal, Net Zero-based incentives. This practice would fulfil several use cases: reducing peak demand in constrained network areas, reducing the carbon intensity of water network demand and reducing need for curtailment of renewable generation.

  The feasibility of these innovations across the electricity and water industries was validated in the Discovery phase. However there has been no real-life development or demonstration of the solution at any scale. Doing so carries significant risk due to the technical challenges to be overcomes, such as coordinating between upstream and downstream water sites or accurately forecasting generation intensity and risk of curtailment.

  The Discovery Phase tested the conclusions from FLOWERS - which were for a single water company (South West Water) and DNO (NGED) - with a broader representation of potential users. Consultations and analysis of energy data with one further DNO (UK Power Networks) and three water utilities (Anglian Water, Severn Trent Water and Bristol Water) have broadly supported the findings of FLOWERS. The water industry faces a common challenge of improving efficiency to meet Net Zero targets, and whole system efficiency and optimisation is not currently being pursued.

  This common understanding, and work to identify utility sites for case study, has evolved the project by defining specific trial goals to demonstrate the value of water network operational flexibility. A trial would aim to demonstrate how, at high energy usage water network sites, local load and the load of water sites upstream, downstream and in the same network area can be shifted to manage the export of renewable generation at the main site. Furthermore, how this load management could be embedded in a generation connection.

  This trial could be used to validate all of the use cases described above and demonstrate a flexible load from a novel source - water networks - and a novel commercial arrangement to do so, focused on enabling Net Zero targets and bounded to exist outside of any existing or burgeoning market opportunities.