Smart Energy Isles
| Funding mechanism | Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) |
|---|---|
| Duration | Jan 2018 - Jul 2020 |
| Project expenditure | 400K |
| Research area | Low Carbon Generation and Connections |
| Website address | social-innovation.hitachi/en/case_studies/smart-energy-islands-isles-of-scilly/ |
| Region |
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Objective
The Smart Energy Islands is a European funded project launched by The Isles of Scilly Council along with Hitachi and other project partners. As part of this project they hope to build and operate a renewable energy Microgrid on the Isles of Scilly to allow them to increase their renewable generation capacity. There will be a multithreaded approach looking at building a sophisticated software platform, setting up an Energy Enterprise, installing controllable demands in residents’ homes and installing controllable charging infrastructure for a fleet of publically available electric vehicles. Each of these areas are seeking to maximize the use of renewable generation which is intended to be installed alongside the project.
WPD will be running a parallel project, Smart Energy Isles, which will contribute to increasing the amount of renewable energy generated on the Isles of Scilly by enhancing an established Active Network Management (ANM) zone. The enhancements will allow a group of generators to be managed as if they were a single generator within the ANM algorithm and will also allow local demand side management to offset the degree to which the generation on the Isles is curtailed.
While pioneered on the Isles of Scilly, the intention is that the modified ANM could be applied anywhere, allowing other communities to maximize their use of renewable generation which would have otherwise been curtailed.
Problem(s)
This energy project will remove some of the barriers to installing renewable generation on the Isles of Scilly. The prominent type of generation for this deployment is small LV connected G59 generators at small premises and demand control systems being delivered by Hitachi. However as the Isles of Scilly is embedded within the Alverdiscott/Indian Queens ANM zone, these generators will need to be controlled by this system. This causes two issues: the existing Generator Constraint Panel has been developed for 11kV connections and above and is too large and expensive for typical LV applications, and the existing ANM system is not configured to use localized demand side response to help minimized local curtailment.
Method(s)
The project will develop an extension to the existing ANM system, which will optimize the small generators on the Isles and enable the proposed Demand Side Response capabilities that will be installed as part of the European funded project. The LV inclusive version of ANM will build on the Domestic Load Controller (DLC) developed as part of the LV Connect and Manage NIA project. This device will be connected to a new localized sub ANM controller allowing for the communication paths to be reviewed. This localized sub ANM controller will also act as the interface with Demand Side Response via Hitachi’s control system. An interface and control system will be developed and the technical and commercial issues will be explored so this system will be implementable anywhere, in particular on the mainland, in a sustainable way ensuring the new connections are fair and equitable.
You can find out more about the Smart Islands Programme here.
