Issue 1
Local Energy Market set to revolutionise Cornwall’s energy future
Ten months in and our pioneering Local Energy Market (LEM) programme is making great progress and beginning to sign up a growing number of participants from both businesses and homes.
300 homes and 124 businesses have registered their interest and contracts are now being negotiated. Programme Director Matt Hastings reflects on the first few months of activity: “We have a simple mission. To help build the energy system of the future. We’ve built an amazing team of local experts, all of whom are committed to Cornwall, renewables and making a difference. We’ve made good progress with engaging participants, installing technology and developing the LEM platform, but this is just the beginning. We have a lot more to come."
He continues: "We hear a lot about the pace of change and how unprecedented this is. This is the reality in the energy industry today. What was recently considered the future (like storage and microgrids), is now considered the past. Things we thought were 10 years away (like peer-to-peer energy sales and local energy markets) are happening now. The future is coming at us faster than ever before. It is one of the most exciting periods to be involved in energy, but also one of the most challenging. A challenge the LEM team is very well positioned to address.”
Smart new officesin Truro kitted out by local companies
He continues: “The LEM is a complex programme, split into five distinct projects, all of which are running in parallel – so we have one with businesses, one with residents, one for energy storage and renewables, another for the creation of the LEM platform (the software essentially) and finally our research project with Exeter University. Each has a project manager and a dedicated team.”
What it’s all about
Centrica’s Distributed Energy and Power business is building a pioneering local energy market in Cornwall, which over the next 3 years, will test the role of flexible demand, generation and storage via a new virtual marketplace. This will be supported by the installation of new technology into over 150 homes and businesses.
The £19 million programme is being delivered in partnership with the local distribution network operator Western Power Distribution, alongside National Grid and Exeter University. It is being funded by Centrica and the British Gas Energy for Tomorrow Fund alongside a £13m grant from the European Regional Development Fund.
What we’re doing with residential participants
Over 300 homes have registered their interest in the LEM. We’ll be working with 100 of them to install free solar generation and/or storage units that will be combined with the very latest in smart technologies to potentially help drive down household bills (from a total funding pot of £800,000).
We are planning on working with a diverse range of homes, including those who use gas and also those that use other, often more expensive types of fuel such as oil and electric.
Project Manager, Donna Cooper says: “The response has been surprisingly higher than we expected and from all corners of the county. I have worked with householders on energy projects in Cornwall for the last ten years and have never known such as positive response."
She continues: "Out of the 300 homes who registered their interest, over 265 householders completed a detailed household questionnaire, which will help us identify 150 homes that will potentially meet our project criteria. Over the autumn and winter, all these homes will get a technical survey, the result of which will enable us to narrow the properties down to the final 100 – to be announced in early 2018.”
Residential Project Manager Donna Cooper
Unlocking the potential of renewables
We are pleased to announce our first official participant at The Olde House holiday cottage site near Wadebridge. The working farm and holiday retreat will use energy storage machines supplied by redT energy, to better manage the energy it uses from its own solar generation and the grid.
LEM Storage and Renewables Project Manager, Sophie Orme says: “We’re delighted to be working with RedT and The Olde House. The RedT storage machine is a pioneering technology (vanadium redox flow), with a particularly long lifetime (at least 25 years). The system allows The Olde House to make the most of on-site solar array by reducing reliance on the grid and also selling back to the grid as part of the LEM.”
Shaun Hawkey from The Olde House said: “We generate large amounts of electricity throughout the day but unfortunately cannot utilise it all. With the installation of these energy storage machines, we will be able to store the energy until times when we have a higher demand, for example at the end of the day and into early evening when our guests return from their days out.”
Scott McGregor, CEO of redT energy said: “We are very proud to be the first energy storage technology to be part of the Local Energy Market. The Olde House is a perfect example of how UK businesses can now utilise more of their renewable generation and make money supporting the electricity grid. Centrica are at the cutting edge of the UK energy market and with initiatives such as the LEM, we are pleased to be working with them to secure the UK’s energy future by creating reliable, affordable, low carbon energy for business owners.”
What we are doing with business participants
Over 124 businesses have registered their interest so far and we have worked with 56 sites providing them with energy audits. We are currently installing energy monitoring and management devices for 17 businesses.
Our intention is to work with around 60 businesses, awarding funds up to a total of £6m to cover the cost of a variety of initiatives including energy audits, smart technology upgrades and or/installs with the aim of helping unlock money making potential and reducing energy costs.
Building the market platform
This unique ‘virtual’ marketplace, will give homes and businesses the power to buy and sell energy to the Grid. They can also get paid to reduce or delay their consumption – all of this will help balance the network.
The local Network Operator, which in this case is Western Power Distribution, will be able to place bids onto the marketplace for participants to make offers against. Participants will then receive a payment for their response should their offer be accepted. For residents, this will all happen automatically.
Western Power Distribution (WPD) is developing the software that will allow them to identify constrained areas of the network and buy flexible energy demand or generation from the Local Energy Market platform.
Jenny Woodruff, Innovation and Low Carbon Networks Engineer for WPD says: “Innovation is core to Western Power Distribution’s business strategy. The energy system is changing and distribution network operators will continue to have a greater need to actively manage energy flows on a real-time basis. This is in order to develop an efficient, coordinated and economic network, that accommodates emerging system needs while delivering benefits and savings for customers.
The Cornwall Local Energy Market project is just one of many that WPD is partnering with the aim of delivering benefits to our customers sooner”.
In the national news
BBC Radio 4’s programme ‘Battery Powered Britain’ recently featured the Cornwall LEM!
The programme is part of the new Costing the Earth series, focussing on environmental issues. It was a great platform to talk about the role we’re playing in shaping the future energy landscape.
Heavily featured in the piece are some of our business participants alongside some of the LEM team, talking about the role of battery storage in supporting further renewable development and how we’re working to install batteries in homes and businesses as part of the trial.
It’s well worth a listen and is available here:
The Cornwall Local Energy Market is part-funded by European Regional Development Funds under the European Structural and Investment Funds Programme 2014-2020.
