Line Rating Study: Majority of UK and Ireland’s energy grid ‘underused’
Boosting grid capacity to support increased energy demand is one of the biggest challenges facing utilities in the UK and Ireland today. We will need some new infrastructure to achieve this. However, by making the most of our existing infrastructure, we can significantly lower the time and cost required.
At Neara, we conducted a digital line rating analysis across stretches of the UK and Ireland’s energy networks to see whether more capacity could be leveraged within the existing grid. Our findings? Up to three-quarters of the region’s energy distribution networks are currently operating below capacity, meaning more energy could safely be run through the existing grid.
This could help alleviate bottlenecks while long-term projects to address the need for new infrastructure are realised. These insights could be critical to helping networks keep pace with the rapid electrification of the UK & Ireland’s economies, as well as cutting the grid connection queue.
Read on to find out how the analysis was conducted and what the findings mean for the region’s future energy goals.
About the analysis: Using physics-enabled digital modelling to free up additional capacity
To assess the potential capacity of current grid infrastructure, we modelled over 127,000 spans, or >15k kilometres across sections of the UK and Ireland’s electricity distribution networks. We then simulated running these lines at a higher temperature, monitoring variations in Maximum Operating Temperature (“MOT”) to see how they would respond to higher volumes of energy.
The MOT is the highest temperature a power line or component can safely reach before thermal expansion causes it to sag below safe clearance limits. MOTs across the UK & Ireland’s distribution networks range from around 50-70°C. These are typically conservative estimates. It would be impossible for utilities to accurately measure specific variations in capacity across the entire grid using traditional software and methods. As a result, to ensure safety, certain parts of the infrastructure which could handle higher currents go under-utilised.
Using physics-enabled digital modelling, our platform was able to assess the potential clearance violations and physical bottlenecks affecting Medium Voltage (MV) spans across the networks. It then simulated the effect of running power lines at higher temperatures, to ascertain the point at which a violation may occur and discern where they could safely carry more electricity than existing MOT limits allow.
To account for the variation in existing MOTs across regions, all power lines were tested at 50°C, 70°C and 85°C. These tests revealed how much of the network was being underutilised at each temperature, and thus the potential for more power to be transported across each section of the network without incurring safety issues.
The results: Untapped capacity discovered across majority of the grid
Results from our analysis showed that:
-On average, 74% of the UK and Ireland’s distribution networks are underutilised at their current MOT, meaning the vast majority of power lines could safely carry more electricity than they currently do
-When tested at temperatures of 85°C, the majority of cables (64%) were found to be underutilized
-Across some areas, the analysis revealed that up to 93% of the network could currently be running below capacity
These findings echo the results from a previous Neara study conducted in Australia in partnership with utility Essential Energy. During that analysis, we found that the true safe limit for certain parts of its energy network was twice as high as previously thought.
Why this matters: How networks can use physics-based modelling to assess true energy capacity
The results of this analysis could prove vital in aiding the UK and Ireland’s quests to reach clean energy goals by 2030. Due to a perceived lack of capacity in our energy grid, there is currently a queue of new projects, including a range of solar and wind sources, waiting to be connected. By unlocking latent capacity in the existing network, some of our national energy demands could be met without the need for new infrastructure.
Our Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Taco Engelaar, comments:
“One of the greatest challenges facing utilities when it comes to boosting capacity has always been a lack of data. Without having granular, span-by-span insights into the nature of their networks, decision-makers are forced to implement arbitrary restrictions which prevent the grid from operating at its full potential and leave huge sections of our infrastructure cautiously underused.
“By implementing physics-enabled AI and digital line rating tools, we can overcome these challenges, allowing utilities to build a comprehensive picture of their networks, identifying bottlenecks and pinpointing areas where capacity can be safely increased. As the pace of electrification continues to demand more and more from our energy grid, these solutions could also help utilities to forecast where additional capacity might be unlocked in the future.”
Read Utility Week’s full article on this topic featuring our Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Europe, Taco Engelaar, here.