Development of business models for community energy schemes

Background
Local industry and local communities can suffer from high electricity prices and slow and expensive electricity grid connections, which place these regions at an economic disadvantage. This is especially true with high energy using industries such as the ICT / data centres which need low energy costs to compete in an international market place. In addition, the success of government policies to stimulate growth in the renewable energy sector, especially wind, is now causing imbalances between supply and demand at times of strong wind and low system load that result in the need to switch wind turbines off. This turn-down of wind farms has the potential to bring the growth of the wind industry to a halt and places renewable energy targets in jeopardy because revenue streams would be uncertain over the life of new project assets.

Aim
Through electricity network modelling, heat network modelling and electricity market modelling, the role of districts and communities as variable renewable energy management systems will be assessed. Initially utilising Coleraine, Northern Ireland as a town-scale community example, the role of heating networks, electricity networks, intelligent control systems and energy storage to manage intermittent renewable energy generation will be assessed. Integration with demand response and management from larger scale commercial entities and aggregated domestic and small business loads will also be modelled. This work will be extended to communities of different scales to assess its impact on variable renewable energy deployment.

Outputs - Scientific & Impact
Numerous communities exist that could host significant variable renewable resources. Community day-to-day energy needs and energy management can be extended into a demand response role with the optimised deployment of energy transfer and storage systems. This is a considerable advance on current UK and Ireland energy policies and regulations, and has the potential to radically inform future energy system thinking. Business models within current, emerging and proposed energy market structures will inform the likely success of such future ventures.

For further details, please contact Professor Neil J Hewitt
Ulster University
Newtownabbey
Co Antrim
BT37 0QB
Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0) 28 903 68566
Mobile: +44 (0) 78 724 21694
Email [Email Address Removed]
Web www.cst.ulster.ac.uk

Procedure
For more information on applying go to https://ulster.ac.uk/research

Apply online https://ulster.ac.uk/applyonline

The closing date for receipt of completed applications is 28 October 2017

Interviews will be held in November 2017