SUPERGEN Future Network Technologies Consortium

Locational and congestion problems

This particular project will tackle the locational and congestion issues created by the increasing impact of renewable generation. The best marine and wind energy resources tend to be in the north of the UK. This creates bottlenecks in transmission and distribution networks as not all of the energy which is available in the north can be transported to the main load centres in the south. Construction of new transmission lines is very difficult due to planning, environmental and public concerns. Thus the problem of locating new renewable plants has to be looked at from the point of view of combining availability of energy with the availability of transport capabilities. When the electricity transmission capabilities are not high enough, a mechanism for dealing with network congestion has to be found. Traditional congestion management methods are usually aimed at traditional bulk power markets, but not at high volume/low cost transactions associated with renewables. Project activities will include:

• Investigate locational impact of future renewable energy sources on the existing and planned transmission and distribution networks.
• Identify best locations taking into account availability of energy sources and possible grid integration.
• Investigate the impact of future hydrogen technology on easing transmission bottlenecks.
• Investigate possible market-based mechanisms for dealing with congestion caused by high volume/low cost transactions.

Project Staff

Prof Janusz Bialek - Project Leader [Janusz.Bialek@ed.ac.uk]

Qiong Zhou (Jo) - Post-Doctoral Research Fellow [Q.Zhou@ed.ac.uk]

Selina Feng - PhD Student [X.Feng@ed.ac.uk]