Rebalancing three-phase power supply by using distributed flexibility in electric vehicles, heat pumps, and energy storage

Over 70% of the UK’s low voltage (LV or 415V) distribution networks suffer from significant degrees of three-phase imbalance. For instance, it is common for one phase to have a peak current of 300A and another phase to have 150A. Two major causes for this issue are: 1) the uneven allocation of loads across the three phases; 2) random load behaviours over time. Such an imbalance is a major contributor to the 6% energy losses in the UK’s electric power systems, translating to a loss up to hundreds of millions of pounds each year. It also causes network investment costs to rise by at least 20% or billions of pounds each year, due to inefficient uses of network assets (K. Ma, et al., "Quantification of Additional Asset Reinforcement Cost From 3-Phase Imbalance," Power Systems, IEEE Transactions on, vol. PP, pp. 1-7, 2015). In light of these, this project aim to rebalance three-phase power supply by a combination of: 1) phase swapping to address the imbalance caused by 1); and 2) mobilising distributed flexibility in electric vehicles, heat pumps, and energy storage to address the imbalance caused by 2).

Therefore, a potential applicant will be embarking on a cutting-edge research topic that aims to:
1) Understand the potential of distributed flexibility in electric vehicles, heat pumps, and energy storage.
2) Develop strategies to coordinate the flexibility to achieve balanced power supply at the substation side.

The research output will be of direct use for the industry, especially for distribution network operators (DNO) in helping them to rebalance their three-phase power supply. It will achieve reduced energy losses, investment cost saving, and reduced CO2 emissions. Therefore, the research will not only be of a cutting-edge nature from an academic perspective, but also bring practical values for the industry as well as the society as a whole.

Programming proficiency with Matlab and basic understanding of electrical power systems is an advantage.