Energy Research Day Conference

Wednesday 6 March 2013, The Open University, Walton Hall,  Milton Keynes.

Programme 

The  programme for the meeting is given below.  The meeting will begin at 10:25am (refreshements available from 10am) and will finish at 4.30 pm..

Abstracts for the presentations are listed at the end in alphabetical order by surname. Where available,  click on the title to download the slides for the presentation.

10:00	Registration and Refreshments	Room 2
10:25	Welcome	Room 3/4
10:30	William J Nuttall (Open University)     Nuclear Power and Next Steps in European  Electricity Policy	Room 3/4
11:05	John Young (National Grid)    Electricity Demand Forecasting and the Problem of Embedded Generation	Room 3/4
11:50	Tim Bedford (Strathclyde University) Modelling Uncertainties in Offshore Turbine Availability	Room 3/4
12:30	Lunch	Berrill Cafe
1:30	Tobi Kellner (Centre for Alternative Technology) Zero Carbon Britain – Modelling Future Energy Systems	Room 3/4
2:15	Parallel Session 1  (see below)	Room 3/4
2:15	Parallel Session 2  (see below)	Room 2
3:25	Refreshments	Room 2
3:45	Rui Carvalho (Queen Mary, University of London)   Fair Flows and Robustness in Infrastructure Networks	Room 3/4
4:25	Closing Remarks	Room 3/4
4:30	Close

2.15	Parallel Session 1	Room 3/4
2.15	Gerd Kortuem (Open University)    Energy-Balanced Living	Room 3/4
2.40	Darren Jones (Low Carbon Europe) Energy Efficiency in the National Health Service	Room 3/4
3.05	Stephen Potter (Open University) The Social Life of Smart Grids	Room 3/4
2.15	Parallel Session 2	Room 2
2.15	Les Levidow (Open University) Innovation Priorities for UK Bioenergy: Technological Expectations within Path Dependence	Room 2
2.40	Foroogh Hosseinzadeh (Open University) Role of Materials Engineering in Energy Challenges	Room 2
3.05	Satheesh Krishnamurthy (Open University) Intelligent Nanomaterials for Energy Harvesting and Storage	Room 2

Abstracts

Tim Bedford (Strathclyde University)  Modelling Uncertainties in Offshore Turbine Availability

Government targets and planned investment by the electricity generation industry suggests a huge investment in offshore wind turbines in the seas around the UK over the coming 10 years.  Turbines are undergoing rapid development, and the logistics systems required to support their operation are not yet in existence. Experience across a range of new engineering technologies shows that there is a period of reliability growth that takes place during early deployment of such systems. In this talk we shall look at ways to bridge the gaps between mathematical modelling and engineering knowledge in assessing the level of uncertainty there is around performance, and the speed with which this can be increased in the early years of operation. Since wind farms contain many identical turbines, performance problems are typically replicated across the whole farm, meaning that state of knowledge uncertainties at the level of individual turbines create uncertainties in overall wind farm performance. The talk discusses the creation of a simulation tool that allows the user to model the impact of state-of-knowledge uncertainties and early strategies to mitigate them.

Rui Carvalho (Queen Mary, University of London)  Fair Flows and Robustness in Infrastructure Networks

In the first part of the talk, I will discuss the effect of network topology on the fair allocation of network resources among a set of agents, an all-important issue for the efficiency of transportation networks all around us. I will detail a generic mechanism that distributes network capacity fairly among existing flow demands. The problem can be solved by semi-analytical methods on a nearest neighbour graph with one source and sink pair, when transport occurs over shortest paths. For this setup, we uncover a broad range of patterns of intersecting shortest paths as a function of the distance between the source and the sink. When the number of intersections is the maximum and the distance between the source and the sink is large, we find that a fair allocation implies a decrease of at least 50% from the maximum throughput. We also find that the histogram of the flow allocations assigned to the agents decays as a power-law with exponent -1. Our semi-analytical framework suggests possible explanations for the well-known reduction of the throughput in fair allocations. It also suggests that the combination of network topology and routing rules can lead to highly uneven (but fair) distributions of resources, a remark of caution to network designers. In the second part of the talk, I will uncover the load and fault-tolerant backbones of the trans-European gas pipeline network. Combining topological data with information on inter-country flows, we estimate the global load of the network and its tolerance to failures. To do this, we apply two complementary methods generalized from the betweenness centrality and the maximum flow. We find that the gas pipeline network has grown to satisfy a dual-purpose: on one hand, the major pipelines are crossed by a large number of shortest paths thereby increasing the efficiency of the network; on the other hand, a non-operational pipeline causes only a minimal impact on network capacity, implying that the network is error-tolerant. These findings suggest that the trans-European gas pipeline network is robust, i.e., error tolerant to failures of high load links.

Foroogh Hosseinzadeh (Open University)  Role of Materials Engineering in Energy Challenges 

The UK in common with other countries faces two great challenges over the coming decades: climate change and energy security. The UK 2050 target is to reducing its Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by providing a mixture of safe, secure, affordable and low emission energy sources. To meet the UK 2050 target it is essential to move towards low carbon industry, low carbon transport, low carbon buildings and low carbon energy generation. Achieving the 2050 target is intimately linked to Materials Engineering. Energy technologies require to secure increase in efficiency, reliability and service lifetime as well as to reduce capital costs. The role of Materials Engineering is to reduce life cycle costs, to ensure higher performance in harsher environments and improved structural integrity and reliability of the materials and energy system. 

Darren Jones (Low Carbon Europe)  Energy Efficiency in the National Health Service

My talk will discuss the background to my PhD project on professional practice in the field of energy efficiency and carbon reduction within the healthcare built environment, which aims to support the NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy for England and hence associated NHS carbon reduction targets.

My talk will reflect on personal concerns as to the validity of engineering low carbon projects and the rationale behind decisions made. From 15 years’ experience working within the NHS, I’ve seen little evidence of a coherent approach to energy reduction and sustainability. Generally speaking, each Trust tends to work in isolation and often poor decisions are made by senior non-technical managers and uninformed technical managers based on the perceived benefits of a given technology or practice; rather than quantifying and qualifying the true effectiveness of new and established carbon reduction technologies and good energy efficiency practices.

I shall examine those factors that affect and influence present procurement methods and decision-making processes of low carbon technologies, and the ways in which these initiatives are evaluated and promoted within the healthcare environment.

Tobi Kellner (Centre for Alternative Technology)  Modelling Energy Supply and Demand in Zero Carbon Britain

The Zero Carbon Britain project group at the Centre for Alternative Technology is researching, developing and communicating scenarios for a future where all energy is supplied from renewable sources. One challenging aspect for future energy scenarios which incorporate large amounts of variable energy sources such as wind power is to demonstrate that supply and demand can be matched at all times. This presentation will illustrate how hourly data on weather and energy demand for the past decade is used to simulate a future energy system with interconnected flows and storage of electricity, heat and (synthetic) gas.

Gerd Kortuem (Open University)  Energy-Balanced Living   

Energy-Balanced Living - A short overview of a research project undertaken by the OU Computing Department in collaboration with E.On. The talk will discuss the ongoing development of an IT infrastructure to improve overall effectiveness and usability of domestic energy generation.

Satheesh Krishnamurthy (Open University) Intelligent Nanomaterials for Energy Harvesting and Storage

Globally, the growth rate of the human population is increasing; creating a huge demand for energy to fulfill requirements for vehicles, computers, air conditioning etc and this is leading to global warming.  Therefore, CO2-free energy is an emergent issue.  The novel characteristics of nanomaterials, coupled with manipulation at atomic and molecular levels can contribute to the development of devices and technologies associated with carbon-free or low carbon energy applications.

The ability to control the particle size and morphology of nanostructured systems is of utmost importance both from a fundamental and industrial point of view considering the tremendous amount of high-tech applications. Controlling the crystallographic structure and the arrangement of atoms along the surface of nanostructured material will determine most of its physical properties. In general, electronic structure ultimately determines the properties of matter.

In this presentation, technological developments underpinning the energy efficiency, storage and commercialisation of nanomaterials with particular reference to solar photovoltaic, supercapacitors and fuel cells will be discussed.  The recent results from my group on the textured silicon surfaces and plasmonic solar cells will be discussed as a potential for low cost high efficiency solar cells. 

Les Levidow (Open University) , Theo Papaioannou and Alexander Borda-Rodriguez. Innovation Priorities for UK Bioenergy: Technological Expectations within Path Dependence

Over the past decade, UK policy has given bioenergy an increasingly important role for decarbonising the energy system. Given the future limits of sustainably sourced biomass, the UK strategy promotes technoscientific innovation to expand the range of biomass that can be sustainably converted to energy. Innovation priorities are shaped by policy arrangements closely involving industry with state bodies. Drivers can be identified by linking two analytical frameworks “technological expectations” and “path dependence“ as dual aspects of bioenergy policy. Technological expectations encompass several policy aims  “combining environmental sustainability (GHG reductions, waste conversion) with various economic benefits. State support measures generally favour bioenergy innovation (e.g. biomass co-firing, advanced biofuels) as novel input-substitutes for supplying centralised infrastructures. Meanwhile support measures remain weak for alternatives (such as biomass-CHP or biohydrogen) which could enhance GHG reductions. Thus technological expectations mobilise support for novel path creation within a path dependence.

William J. Nuttall (Open University)  Nuclear Power and Next steps in European Electricity Policy

The talk will provide an introduction to current issues of European electricity policy, paying particular attention to issues relating to the building of new nuclear power stations. In the middle of the last decade there was much talk of a ‘nuclear renaissance’, however in recent years any exuberance has receded. In the EU prospects for new nuclear build have diminished, but have not been extinguished. For instance, the UK government continues to see a strong role for nuclear power going forward. 

More than twenty years ago the UK led the EU in efforts to liberalise the electricity market. In 2013 the UK is once again the source of provocative ideas in energy policy as the Energy Bill passes through the UK parliament. If passed, the Energy Bill will help facilitate low carbon electricity generation investment, including in nuclear power. Arguably these latest British proposals will roll back the market liberalisation that the UK fought so hard to win. The talk will represent a personal overview of current issues in European electricity policy, and provide a level of context for the talks that follow.  

Stephen Potter (Open University) The Social Life of Smart Grids

This will be based on the work that the Open University is undertaking as part of the Western Power Distribution Project FALCON Smart Grid project in Milton Keynes. “Smart Grid” systems are increasingly considered to be a critical component of a transition to a sustainable system of electricity production, transmission and consumption. Smart Grid designs seek to avoid costly upgrades by sophisticated energy management at a number of levels, down to that of the individual home. This suggests that Smart Grids must involve a blended socio-technical approach and vision.

Yet in practice, the ‘socio’ element receives little emphasis compared to the ‘technical’. There is a crucial issue of the role and active participation of users and enablers in the design and emergence of Smart Grid configurations as opposed to conceiving the user as a passive consumer (albeit accepting that they need to be ‘educated’ to use the resultant technologies).

Our current research provides insights regarding the way Smart Grid projects are constructed and the surprising partners who are now involved, including a brewery and a community media organisation. Smart grids may well need smart partners and user inputs to succeed.

John Young (National Grid)  Electricity Demand Forecasting and the Problem of Embedded Generation

We consider modelling of transmission network demand using the standard National Grid methodologies.  We look at the problems caused by increases in unmetered renewable generation, and consider how to forecast these to make the demand forecasts more accurate.

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