Supergen Energy Networks CO’I, Sridhar Adepu is amongst experts in the Cyber Security Group at the University of Bristol who were recently awarded £6.8m funding from EPSRC.
The Securing Convergent Ultra-large Scale Infrastructures (SCULI) programme brings together researchers from the Universities of Bristol (lead), Oxford and Lancaster, with partners in Industry and Policy to transform the way we conceptualise and deliver cyber security.
In collaboration with National Energy Action (NEA) and the University of Salford, Caitlin Robinson (SEN CO’I) and Ed Atkins (University of Bristol), discuss the role of DNO’s in supporting vulnerable end-users who are disproportionally affected in an energy crisis.
Dr Sam Williamson of Bristol Univeristy talks in this video about what ECR (Early Career Researchers) are, their importance and how people can get involved. As an active committee member, Dr Williamson talks with us about the key role that ECR takes within Universities. Exploring the benefits for those involved, the connections that can be made and the community that develops.
In collaboration with One World at World Energy TV, Supergen is proud to release our brand new documentary. Highlighting the importance of collaboration in our mission towards Net-zero.
Featuring three industry partners at three different scales all working together with Supergen to find new solutions to low carbon energy. BDFI (Bristol Digital Futures Institute), Tyseley Energy Centre and Northern PowerGrid show the varied work being done across the nation. Click to see the amazing work of Supergens partners in the mission of reaching Net-zero.
“Pursuing Low Carbon Energy The race is on to develop sustainable, low carbon energy solutions to power our world.
At the forefront of this critical mission is the SUPERGEN Network – a pioneering research program bringing together top minds to tackle one of humanity’s greatest challenges.
This compelling documentary takes you behind the scenes with the brilliant scientists, engineers, and innovators who are Pursuing Low Carbon Energy. From cutting-edge laboratories to real-world field tests, you’ll witness their groundbreaking work on renewable technologies like solar, wind, marine, bioenergy, and more. Dive into their latest research breakthroughs and see how they are engineering a greener, cleaner energy future.
Whether developing next-generation solar cells, designing advanced wind turbine blades, or unlocking the power of the ocean’s waves, these experts are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. But it’s more than just technology.
The film also explores the economic, environmental, and social impacts of transitioning to low carbon energy systems on a global scale. Policymakers, industry leaders, and local communities weigh in on the challenges and opportunities ahead. Inspiring and insightful, Pursuing Low Carbon Energy offers a rare look at the remarkable efforts underway to reinvent how we keep the lights on and build a sustainable world for generations to come.
Don’t miss this powerful story of human ingenuity and scientific progress!”
The first of many future interviews with Supergen members looking at the diverse challenges and solutions that face Energy Networks.
We sit down with Dr Caitlin Robinson, Research Fellow and Proleptic lecturer in the School of Geography at the University of Bristol to talk about her involvement with Supergen Energy Networks.
Dr Robinson discusses, in this brand new interview, the Vulnerabilities that face energy networks today. Providing insight onto such topics as geographical challenges, policy making and the many impacts that face households nationwide.
To find out more about Dr Caitlin Robinson and her work, click below:
The recent Nature publication by SEN Research Associate, Laiz Souto analyses the occurrence of daily weather patterns and system failures in the UK to investigate the predictability of weather induced power outages.
High risk weather patterns and pattern transitions for all seasons were identified with winter weather patterns characterized by high wind speeds and high precipitation volumes.
Links between specific patterns and transitions can significantly improve the preparedness of the UK and broader European distribution network operators for adverse weather conditions.
For more details and to read the full article, visit our publications page.
£20 million was recently awarded to the University of Birmingham via the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities for the National Centre for Decarbonisation of Heat (NCDH). The NCDH will be constructed at the Tyseley Energy Park, East Birmingham adjacent to the Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre. It is targeted at accelerating delivery in the domestic heating sector, particularly where there are high levels of fuel poverty and poor levels of energy efficiency as judged by EPC standards.
The Centre will act as a coordinating node for industry, local and combined authorities, academia, the third sector and community groups to aggregate learning through the delivery of at-scale housing retrofit programmes.
Funding was recently awarded to two projects within the Supergen Energy Networks Team. The research team at Cardiff University, led by Muditha Abeysekera, were recently awarded HEFCW(Higher Education Funding Council for Wales) to work with partners in Sri Lanka on Agrivoltaic based community energy networks for villages in Sri Lanka.
In collaboration with Edinburgh University, Laiz Souto (University of Bristol), was recently awarded funding by DAFNI for the Distributed RESilience project. The project will investigate the provision of distributed resilience to power grids using distributed energy resources.
12th March 2023
The most recent Risk & Resilience Day 2024 workshop was organised by SEN CO’I, Robin Preece, on 12th March. More than 60 attendees (from 16 UK universities, 7 international universities and research institutes, and 8 UK industries) joined members of the SEN team in Newcastle. There was a marked increase in industry attendance, with industry attendees discussing strategic innovation fund (SIF) projects (the day aligning with the close of SIF Alpha projects in March). That growth enabled an industry session for the first time, as well as increased industry-academia discussion throughout the day.
Keynotes from Professor Liz Varga (Chair in Complex Systems, UCL) who discussed ‘Energy resilience in the context of infrastructure resilience’ and Martin Queen (OFGEM), whose talk was ‘Risk and resilience: a regulator’s perspective’. Attendee presentations were split across four workshop sessions (12 oral presentations), 24 posters presentations, plus the workshop’s first hardware demonstration.
The University of Bristol led SEN hub, run in partnership with Leeds, Cardiff, Manchester, Bath, Birmingham and Newcastle Universities and Energy Systems Catapult, carries out highly impactful interdisciplinary research so that energy networks are not just enablers of the low carbon transition but are a driving force towards a rapid, safe and just transition to net zero.
Electricity, gas and heat networks are vitally important enablers for the UK energy sector and UK industry and society as a whole. However as technology and society evolves, planning, design and operation of energy networks need to be revisited and optimised to maximise impact.
SEN research will be strongly aligned with the Government’s Net Zero Research and Innovation Framework and feed directly into the Net Zero Delivery plan through its membership of the Net Zero Innovation Board.
Professor Philip Taylor, Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise at the University of Bristol, and Head of the SEN Hub, said: “The global energy sector is facing considerable pressure arising from climate change, depletion of fossil fuels and geopolitical issues around the location of remaining fossil fuel reserves. Energy networks exist primarily to exploit and facilitate temporal and spatial diversity in energy production and use and to exploit economies of scale where they exist.
“The modernisation of energy networks’ technology, processes and governance is a necessity for the energy sector to be fit for the future. Good progress has been made in de-carbonisation in some areas but this has not been fast enough, widespread enough across vectors or sectors and not enough of the innovation is being deployed at scale. This project will accelerate the development, scale up the deployment and increase the impact delivered.”
Paul Beasley, Head of Research and Development UK at Siemens, one of the hubs largest industry partners said: “Siemens offer strong support for the Supergen Energy Networks Hub to tackle the global challenges within multi-vector networks, supply and demand activity in order to support real world solutions to achieve net zero in the future.
“We are particularly excited at the prospect of building on existing investments at many of these universities (ie Smart Grid Lab, Smart Campus living lab, etc) and combining the best UK universities on this strategic theme to deliver world class research.”
Johnson Fernandes, CEO & Founder at industry partner Equiwatt Ltd, added: “Absolutely thrilled to hear about the continued support from EPSRC for the Supergen Energy Networks Hub. I am certain the SEN hub will continue to impact more innovative technologies and early stage ventures within academia and industry. A joint effort between industry, academia and innovators will help accelerate a whole systems approach to solving some of the energy network challenges. This is crucial to supporting a sustainable, secure and equitable clean energy transition.
“Equiwatt has benefitted from the SEN Hub since the early days of inception. The support has enabled us to take our innovative residential demand-side response technology from idea to business venture. We are proud to be able to collaborate with SEN hub project partners in continuing the research efforts to shorten the time to market of innovative energy network solutions and help accelerate transition to a sustainable, secure and equitable clean energy network.”
Peter Smith, Director of Energy and Policy at National Energy Action explained: “Collaborations between National Energy Action and the Supergen Energy Networks Hub have helped our charity, as well as a wide range of other private and public sector organisations, better understand the opportunities for energy networks – particularly Distribution Network Operators – to support vulnerable customers.
“Supergen Energy Networks are ideally placed to co-ordinate and engage organisations, other academic centres and other stakeholders representing vulnerable groups, local decisions-makers and network operators to help foster our work in addressing vulnerability amongst energy users.”
Matt Hindle, Head of Net Zero and Sustainability at Wales and West Utilities, said: “We’re proud to be supporting Phase 2 of the Supergen Energy Networks hub. The hub has created invaluable links between academics and industry, and we share its vision for an ambitious, solution-focused net zero energy system.
“In phase 2, we’ll be contributing to all aspects of the hub, from networking events and workshops, to data provision and analysis. We’re also pleased to offer the outputs and findings of our unique Pathfinder model.
“We’re keen to expand the connections developed with academic partners in Phase 1 and look forward to further collaboration in this next phase.”
Made up of a varied community of more than 600 Industrial, Academic and Early Career Research partners, the hub is funded by the Engineering Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
Partners also include Northern Power Grid, British Telecom and National Grid.
A total of £17.5 million investment in three Supergen research hubs is aimed at boosting innovation in energy distribution, both nationally and internationally, and propel discoveries in renewable energy into impactful new technologies.
Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation, said:
“The government has set a target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, and UKRI is supporting this ambition with investments that will catalyse innovation and create new green technologies.
“The funding announced today will support researchers to develop game changing ideas to improve domestic, industrial and transport energy systems.”
“We are particularly excited at the prospect of building on existing investments at many of these universities and combining the best UK universities on this strategic theme to deliver world class research”
