Pipe Up: Time for energy system integration

We are missing out on massive system efficiencies by failing to integrate our energy systems according to sector experts, finds Jane Gray.

For too long, energy policy and industry attention has focussed on the advance of the smart grid and the decarbonisation of electricity generation said energy experts at a conference in Edinburgh last week. Do away with “myopia” and draw a bigger picture of integrated energy systems across electricity, heat and transport, they cried (or tentatively suggested over Danish pastries).

While the European North Sea Energy Alliance’s (ENSEA’s) event didn’t quite feel like the start of a revolution, it did raise some challenging questions about the direction of energy policy and infrastructure planning – not only in the UK, but globally.

The conference provided a platform for the airing of some ambitious views on energy system integration with academic experts from across Europe revealing a variety of market scenario studies.

Primarily, these presentations aimed to provoke thought about the ways in which synergies and coordination might be promoted between the carbon-intensive industries of the old world and the industries pioneering the clean-tech enabled commercial world of tomorrow. Taking time to explore such synergies should provide models for a smoother, more resource efficient transition into a decarbonised society said speakers including Nobel peace-prize winning Catrinus Jempa, a professor of energy and sustainability at the University of Groningen, Denmark.

Jempa went into some detail on his scenarios, running illustrative figures to demonstrate viable – and unviable – business models for using redundant oil and gas platforms to host offshore power to gas facilities, thereby tackling renewables intermittency by converting excess energy into a storable product. While admitting that some of these models are “fantasy scenarios” (like assuming the creation of a hydrogen-fuelled freight shipping industry which could refuel at repurposed rigs) Jempa’s message was clear: There is room for far more creative thinking in energy system coordination and encouraging such creativity could unlock significant new revenue streams.

Backing this argument up, other speakers pointed to estimates of the potential added value which could be brought to bear through better systems integration. Nick Winser, formerly executive director at National Grid and recently appointed chairman of the Energy Systems Catapult, revealed the innovation centre’s plans to return £6bn in economic value add and create 9,000 jobs in the UK by 2030, in exchange for government backing of its work, which focusses on accelerating the commerialisation of technologies that can smarten-up and help integrate energy systems – across electiricty, gas and heat.

Another presentation pinted to an EU commission study which estimarted that energy system integration could unlock between Eu12.5bn and Eu40bn according to an EU Commission study, while several speakers indicated the potential to advance more effective local government and social policy via energy system integration. This could allow govenrment, and society, to fially address fuel poverty head on, an issue which North Gas Network’s Dan Sadler said has been repeatedly sidestepped by policy makers to date.

The challenge of aligning and connecting electricity, heat and transport systems is undoubtedly huge, but increasingly evidence is showing, so are the benefits. Drawing on the insights from this conference, which included a second day of practical workshops to complement the academic and policy presentations, ENSEA is due to present a paper to the European Commission suggesting a practical roadmap for realising these.