On September 17th, the EPSRC Supergen Energy Networks Hub Early Career Researcher Committee hosted an online networking event centred on the topic of “Data in Energy Networks”. The event was run through Gather to make it a bit different to standard online webinars and to enable a bit more freedom and flexibility for participants to strike up conversations with new contacts.
Things kicked off with an excellent opening talk from Dr Stephen Haben from the Energy Systems Catapult, summarising some of the projects that he and The Catapult are working on and ways for researchers to feed into them. Following this, the main topics of conversation in the themed rooms were Strategies and platforms for data sharing and academic-industrial collaboration – the latter being supported and facilitated by some attendees from Arenko.group.
Following the online event, there was even a small gathering for ECRs based in London – for most this was the first face-to-face networking event in well over a year!
The Role of Energy Networks Towards the 2035 Emissions Target
Friday, 3 September
(10:45 – 12:00)
Panellists from Industry and Academia:
- Phil Taylor – Supergen Energy Networks Hub, Bristol University
- Furong Li – Supergen Energy Networks Hub, Bath University
- Jianzhong Wu – Supergen Energy Networks, Cardiff University
- Bethan Winter – Wales and West Utilities
- Chris Harris – Npower
- Michael Pollitt – Cambridge University
- Adam Scorer – National Energy Action
- Jenny Cooper – EPSRC
Full speaker biographies are available to view.
The Supergen Energy Networks (SEN) Hub have been involved in a number of activities focussing on ‘The Role of Energy Networks Towards the 2035 Emissions Target’ and Net Zero. Activities have included participation in the EPSRC Net Zero Week, COP26 and Green Infrastructure Week.
EPSRC Net Zero Week (June 2022)
From the 20 – 24th June, we were involved in both online and in person events related to the EPSRC Net Zero Week which was held in Glasgow.
Slides Presented at Net Zero
Our Net Zero slide pack which was presented on our stand at Net Zero is available to view.
Online Webinars
Online sessions discussing ‘If Energy Storage becomes ubiquitous, do we really need Energy Networks’, hosted by the Energy Networks Hub and ‘What are the social implicatations of a move to Net Zero’ jointly hosted by all Supergen Hubs took place during the week. Experts from Industry and Academia presented and were involved in discussions.
Recordings of the sessions are available to view below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8u9rWi9sIc&ab_channel=SupergenEnergyNetworksHub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYixLH9U8Zw&ab_channel=SupergenEnergyNetworksHub
COP26 Activities:
Net Zero Workshops
In June the hub hosted a series of workshops in which leading Academics and Industry experts joined live webinar discussions on the Market & Regulations, Social and Technical implications/aspects of future energy networks, towards the UK Government targets. Our Early Career Researchers held an online event as part of the workshops looking at Data in Energy Networks.
Policy Papers
Discussions from the workshops have resulted in 3 Policy Papers being produced by the hub, these are available to view (below) and will be showcased by our Director, Professor Phil Taylor during COP26.
Market & Regulations
The Markets & Regulations panel focussed on the question as to how low carbon technologies can be suitably incentivised to provide the flexibility needed to integrate high levels of new variable renewable energy technologies, explicitly considering how constraints of network infrastructure might influence the whole system approach.
The Policy Paper is available to view.
Social
Hosted by the Black South West Network (BSWN), the second workshop concentrated on the Social aspects of future energy systems. The panel discussed how we can better enable voices from underrepresented communities to engage with the sustainable energy discussion, the barriers hindering these communities and the unseen and unintended consequences of changes to energy networks.
The Social Policy Paper is now available to view.
Technical
Our third workshop focussed on the Technical challenges facing energy networks in light of the 2035 target. Focussing on whole energy networks transformation and significant investments, as well as the electrification of heat and transport, and the role of the gas network in a Net Zero world and uses of hydrogen in the economy.
The Technical Policy Paper is available to view.
Joint Supergen Hub Conference
In September SEN joined the Bio, Super Solar, Offshore Renewables, Storage+ and Hydrogen Hubs to run a 3 day online conference. The conference explored the role of energy research in the pathway to net zero. Over the course of 3 days, each hub showcased their research as well leading on cross-cutting panel discussions exploring topics such as Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and International perspectives on energy research. The Early Career Researchers (ECR) outlined their activities and the conference closed with a session outlining policy implications of Supergen research for COP26.
SEN led a session on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion as well as our own Networks Session exploring ‘The Role of Energy Networks towards the 2035 Emissions Target’ Running alongside the conference, our Early Career Researchers led an online session on ‘Data in Energy Networks’
Details of our sessions (below) as well as recordings of all conference sessions are available to view on the website.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
COP26 – Energy Day
On the 4 November, Professor Sara Walker (Deputy Director SEN Hub) along with 3 SEN Researchers (Laiz Souto, Yang Gao and Ali Ehsan), joined representatives from the Supergen Hubs to attend Energy Day at COP26. The event enabled each hub to showcase their hubs perspectives on ‘The Role of Energy Research in the Pathway to Net Zero’.
A summary of the event by Dr Laiz Souto is available to read via our news page.
25 – 29 April 2022
As part of the Green Infrastructure Week, we are hosting 3 live online sessions discussing challenges to Net Zero Infrastructure.
Details for each session are below, with recordings of the live sessions being made available on our YouTube site and on the Green Infrastructure Website for those that are not able to join live.
More information about the events during 25 – 29 April, including relevant reports, can be found on the Green Infrastructure Website.
Panel Discussion – Vulnerabilities to UK CNI: Climate Change & Extreme Weather (29/04) 12:00 BST
Panel Discussion:
- Spyros Skarvelis-Kazakos, Sussex University
- Janusz Bialek, Newcastle University
- Chris Dent, Edinburgh University
- David Brayshaw, Reading University
Following submission of their written evidence to the Joint Committee on National Security Strategy, the Supergen Energy Networks Climate Adaptation panel will discuss the resilience of Power System Infrastructure, including vulnerabilities to extreme weather events and climate change.
If you missed the session this is available to view on demand via our YouTube Channel.
Joint Supergen Webinar – Challenges to delivering Net Zero Infrastructure (29/04) 13:00 BST
Panel:
- Andrew Wright, | Chair
- Phil Taylor, Director, Supergen Energy Networks Hub| Speaker
- Katie Chong, Topic Group Representative, Supergen Bioenergy Hub | Speaker
- Yulong Ding, Supergen Energy Storage Network+ | Speaker
- Jasmin Cooper, Research Associate at the Sustainable Gas Institute | Panellist
- Georgina Morris, Innovation Programme Manager – Energy Storage at BEIS | Panellist
- Zhongdong Wang, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean at University of Exeter | Panellist
- Aoife Foley, Reader, Queens University Belfast | Panellist
Supergen Bioenergy Hub, Supergen Energy Networks Hub and Supergen Energy Storage Network+, will examine the challenges to delivering net zero infrastructure in the UK. The format of the event will be a presentation from each Supergen hub, followed by a panel discussion with representatives from industry, policy and academia.
If you missed the session, this is available to view on demand via our YouTube Channel.
For more information on the speakers/panellists, please visit the Green Infrastructure Website.
Webinar: Climate Finance (25/04)
In the first of our 3 live events, Professor Iain Clacher, Leeds University gave an overview of Climate Finance based on his experience at COP26 in November 2021.
If you were unable to join us live, the session is available to view on the SEN youtube channel or via the Green Infrastructure Website.
Green Infrastructure SEN Publications
The Supergen Energy Networks Hub has published a number of articles related to Green Infrastructure.
Publications include written evidence submitted to the Joint Comittee on the National Security Strategy as part of a session on critical national infrastructure and climate adaptation as well as an article published in The Conversation, Heat pumps: UK to install 600,000 a year by 2028 but electrical grid will need massive investment to cope.
If you would like any further information, or have any questions/queries on any of the webinars, panel discussions or publications, please contact: supergenen@ncl.ac.uk.
The equality diversity and inclusion session at the Supergen COP26 conference involved 7 high profile colleagues who are actively undertaking interventions to improve equality diversity and inclusion:
Our session speakers from Industry and Academia:
- Dr Sara Walker (Chair) – Deputy Director, Supergen Energy Networks Hub, Newcastle University
- Professor Belinda Colston – Director Eleanor Glanville Centre, University of Lincoln
- Dr Leda Blackwood – Senior Lecturer, University of Bath
- Professor Louise Mullany – Professor of Sociolinguistics, University of Nottingham
- Dr Zaffie Cox – Portfolio Manager, EPSRC
- Professor Rachel Oliver – Professor of Materials Science, University of Cambridge
- Emma Pinchbeck – Chief Executive, Energy UK
Details of the session are avialble to view on the website or read in our blog post.
Speaker details and biographies are available to view.
Following on from the success of the 2020 Supergen ECR Cross Hub webinar series, the Supergen Hubs have started a new series of webinars for 2021. This is a great chance to see what research is happening across the whole Supergen network and potentially find some new opportunities for cross-hub collaboration.
The first session was held in March and further sessions are planned throughout the year. For more information please contact the ECR committee members.
All sessions are recorded and available to view on the youtube website.
Session 1: Current ECR Research within Supergen Hubs (March 3rd 2021)
Our series of webinars focussing on the research of our seven flex funded projects which were awarded in 2019 has now concluded.
All webinar sessions are available to view on our YouTube channel.
If you have any questions or queries please contact Lindsey Allen, Research Project Coordinator.
2 February: Whole Systems Energy Transparency: More power to software developers!
This session is now available to view. Please use passcode:$cjzw5j5
Speaker: Professor Kerstin Eder (Bristol University)
Abstract:
Energy efficiency is now a major, if not the major, constraint in electronic systems engineering. Significant progress has been made in low power hardware design for several decades. The potential for savings is now far greater at the higher levels of abstraction in the system stack. The greatest savings are expected from energy consumption-aware software. Promoting energy efficiency to a first class software design goal is therefore an urgent research challenge.
Designing software for energy efficiency requires visibility of energy consumption from the hardware, where the energy is consumed, all the way through to the programs that ultimately control what the hardware does.
This visibility is termed energy transparency. Energy transparency enables a deeper understanding of how algorithms and coding impact on the energy consumption of a computation when executed on hardware. It is a key prerequisite for informed design space exploration and helps system designers to find the optimal trade-off between performance, accuracy, security and energy consumption of a computation.
In this seminar I will outline recent research advances that will give “more power” to software developers. We will investigate why software is key to energy efficient computing, what energy transparency is, how to monitor and measure the energy consumed by software, how to model energy consumption at different abstraction levels, how data affects the energy consumption of a computation, and how to statically estimate the energy consumed by software.
Bio:
Kerstin Eder is Professor of Computer Science and heads the Trustworthy Systems Laboratory (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/tsl) at the University of Bristol, UK. She also leads the research theme on Verification and Validation for Safety in Robots at the Bristol Robotics Lab. Her research is focused on specification, verification and analysis techniques that allow engineers to design a system and to verify or explore its behaviour in terms of functional correctness, security, performance and energy efficiency. Kerstin has gained extensive experience of verifying complex microelectronic designs while working with leading semiconductor design and Electronic Design Automation companies. In her research she seeks novel techniques and fundamental theoretical contributions to achieve solutions that make a difference in practice. Kerstin is a Royal Academy of Engineering ‘Excellence in Engineering’ prize winner. She holds a PhD in Computational Logic, an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and an MEng in Informatics.
Our series of webinars focussing on the research of our seven flex funded projects which were awarded in 2019 has now concluded.
All webinar sessions are available to view on our YouTube channel.
If you have any questions or queries please contact Lindsey Allen, Research Project Coordinator.
10 December: Using machine learning to represent power system dynamics
10 December: Using machine learning to represent power system dynamics
(14:00 – 15:00)
Speaker: Panos Papadopoulos (University of Strathclyde)
The session is available to view.
Project Summary
The ever increasing integration of variable output renewable energy sources (mainly wind and solar) as well as various other power electronic interfaced devices (e.g. electric vehicles, HVDC interconnectors, potentially battery storage, heat pumps, etc.) to achieve decarbonisation targets, significantly increases the uncertainty and complexity in the dynamic behaviour of electrical power systems. Machine learning has shown great potential in dealing with complex nonlinear systems in various domains. This project envisions bringing together the artificial intelligence and power engineering research communities to work on the very computationally demanding and complex problem of representing the power system dynamic behaviour.
Further information on the project is available.
Our series of webinars focussing on the research of our seven flex funded projects which were awarded in 2019 has now concluded.
All webinar sessions are available to view on our YouTube channel.
If you have any questions or queries please contact Lindsey Allen, Research Project Coordinator.
3 June (14:00 – 15:00): Emissions-led dispatch of hybrid heating systems
3 June (14:00 – 15:00): Emissions-led dispatch of hybrid heating systems
Speaker: Camilla Thomson and James Robertson (Edinburgh University)
The recording of the webinar is available to view, please use passcode: Mum57aw@
Project Summary
There is some evidence that hybrid heating systems – heat pumps coupled with conventional technologies – can achieve significant carbon reductions when actively-controlled. There is a need, however, to better understand the interdependencies between this hybrid heating and the wider energy system of different vectors at different scales. Also, the consequential impacts of hybrid heating on network constraints and regional, time-varying, marginal carbon emissions needs to be identified. This project addresses these by soft-linking dispatch models across scales and vectors with carbon analysis to examine the opportunities and costs of emissions-led dispatch of hybrid heating.
Further information on the project is available.
Our series of webinars focussing on the research of our seven flex funded projects which were awarded in 2019 has now concluded.
All webinar sessions are available to view on our YouTube channel.
If you have any questions or queries please contact Lindsey Allen, Research Project Coordinator.
9 March: Consumer-centric privacy protection scheme for energy consumption data
9 March: Consumer-centric privacy protection scheme for energy consumption data
Speaker: Fei Teng (Imperial College, London)
This session is available to view, please use passcode: T9@ZV8CQ
Project Summary
Recent advances in data analytics of energy system highlight the need to collect large volume of data, which causes concerns over privacy and security. Existing protection schemes, such as encryption, can not address the privacy concerns over the lifetime of the data, as evidenced by the data breach of British Airways. This project aims to explore and expand a new concept of differential privacy, recently developed in data science, into the energy system and develop a novel consumer-centric privacy-preserving mechanism that provides tailored protection for consumer-chosen sensitive information, while minimising the utility loss of the data.
Further information is available on the project.