North East project to tackle carbon emissions set for boost from Ofgem
A project aimed at reducing carbon emissions in the North East has received a funding boost.
The discovery-phase project, led by Northern Powergrid, LCP Delta, and Newcastle University, has been awarded funding from Ofgem's Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).
The project, named VOLT (Vector-Optimised Microgrid Operations for Industrial Low-carbon Transition), will explore how microgrids can help industrial and commercial sites cut carbon emissions, boost energy resilience, increase flexibility, and save money.
Microgrids are local energy systems that can operate independently or alongside the main grid.
There is lots of online information about microgrids, but after cutting through the low carbon waffle, the last sentence quoted above is what it's about. Microgrids mainly seem to be systems aimed at providing local resilience in the event of national grid failures.
'Local' could in principle be anything significantly smaller than the main grid, from a massive data centre with a huge battery backup system to a single house with batteries in the garage. There are numerous other scenarios, including Small Modular Reactors.
'Local' could in principle be anything significantly smaller than the main grid, from a massive data centre with a huge battery backup system to a single house with batteries in the garage. There are numerous other scenarios, including Small Modular Reactors.
After cutting through the low carbon waffle again, Ed Miliband's constant references to a need for 'resilience' seem to be prompted by the expectation that his Net Zero policies will provide a boost for low carbon blackouts. But we knew that.
6 comments:
Miliband and Net Zero waffle ... a most unfortunate pairing. As designed to be.
James - yes, the most useful of useful idiots.
"To a single house with batteries in the garage"
Yay! - fame at last...
Dave - and you may get to try it out, the only house with the lights on.
Yes, I'm well aware of that - it's (probably) a bigger risk than losing the mains in the first place. The main things I want to keep powered are the freezer and central heating boiler & pump. Any lights will be deliberately made to look as if I'm relying on torches. And if, by that stage, I've had to move to fibre broadband and VOIP telephony my backup plan will only be of help for as long as the batteries in the Openreach cabinet hold up. The same goes for mobile networks. I wonder how many other people still have working CB radios?
Dave - yes, communication is the big headache. It's the issue which could turn a prolonged blackout into a disaster.
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