University Of Sheffield Works With National Grid To Increase Efficiency Of Grid
The University of Sheffield is working with National Grid to help them improve the efficiency of their network through better measurement of solar energy coming on to the grid.
Research project, Sheffield Solar - within the University's Department of Physics and Astronomy "“ aims to help reduce our impact on the environment while saving money for electricity bill payers.
Solar power has seen a massive surge in uptake over the past five years, providing up to 16 per cent of the UK's energy demand. This has taken its toll on the Britain's transmission grid operator, National Grid, as it is unmetered, so they only see it as a drop in demand.
The National Grid is responsible for balancing supply and demand of energy for the country. They have half hourly auctions to buy the required energy, but solar is an unknown quantity, so adds an unwelcome factor into their calculations. The result of this is that they have to keep more capacity in reserve, just in case demand suddenly drops or rises. This reserve is expensive financially, but also environmentally as reserve prices are high, and higher reserves means more energy wasted.
Currently National Grid use weather information to estimate how much power solar systems are generating, but this is not very accurate. Sheffield Solar is now working with them to produce a tool which will use data from live systems to give them a better estimate. Aldous Everard, Business Development Manager at Sheffield Solar, said: "The project began in the summer and we're already publishing some preliminary results online.
"We are making the results public, so anyone can follow the live generation feed on our website, showing how much power is being produced by solar in Britain every half hour.
"Eventually the tool will show how much is being produced at each of the National Grid's main supply points, of which there are about 400 nationally."
