Integrated, Market-fit and Affordable Grid-scale Energy Storage (IMAGES)

人们普遍认为，英国能源网络在未来几十年将面临许多前所未有的挑战。这些挑战包括：由于本土化石燃料储量减少，对进口化石燃料的依赖增加，（78%的煤炭和50%的天然气进口，预计2020年天然气进口将超过80%），并计划在未来十年内淘汰老化的发电能力（约20吉瓦或现有发电容量的25%）;脱碳发电，以实现到2050年二氧化碳排放量减少80%的目标;以及应对未来交通电气化和空间供暖带来的电力需求增长。为了应对这些巨大的挑战，人们认识到，英国的能源网络，必须改变，战略和现有的监管安排应进行审查，以检查他们是否适合未来的能源网络运营的目的。为确保电力供应与需求紧密配合，必须妥善控制和管理发电量。如果电力供需平衡被打破，电力供需差超过某一临界水平，电力系统就可能发生故障，造成区域性停电。英国在网络稳定性方面尤其脆弱，因为它有一个相对孤立的小岛屿电力网络。目前，我们80%的电力来自化石燃料（煤炭或天然气），负载平衡功能主要通过应对负载变化的化石燃料调峰发电厂进行管理。英国的发电组合将发生巨大变化，煤炭和天然气的使用将大幅减少，清洁可变的间歇性可再生能源发电机将增加。到2030年，我们目前因依赖化石燃料发电而享有的固有储能能力将大大减少。需要解决方案来解决由于计划减少化石燃料发电和整合大量不可预测的间歇性可再生能源而导致的隐含能源存储减少而带来的网络挑战。能量存储可以在以下方面提供多种价值：i）帮助满足峰值大规模电负载，ii）提供时变能量充电管理，iii）允许存储可再生发电以减轻不稳定性，iv）提高电力质量/可靠性，v）满足远程负载需求，vi）用于管理分布式发电的存储，这项拟议的研究计划将侧重于将大型电网规模储能与能源网络相结合所面临的具有挑战性的技术和经济问题。

It is accepted that UK energy networks face a number of unprecedented challenges in the upcoming decades. These challenges include the threat to the security of energy supply due to declining indigenous fossil fuel reserves, increased reliance on imported fossil fuel (78% of coal and 50% of natural gas are imported, it is predicted that gas import will be over 80% in 2020), and planned retirement of ageing generation capacity over the next decade (approximately 20GW or 25% of the existing generation capacity); decarbonising electricity generation to achieve the goal of 80% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050; and coping with the future increases in electricity demand from electrification of transportation and space heating. To address these great challenges, it is recognized that the UK energy networks, must change, strategically and the existing regulatory arrangements should be examined to check if they are fit for the purpose of future energy network operations. To ensure that power supply closely matches demand, the amount of electricity generated must be well controlled and managed. If the balance between supply and demand is broken and the difference exceeds a critical level, the power system may fail and cause a regional blackout. The UK is especially vulnerable in terms of network stability as it has a relatively isolated small island power network. Currently, 80% of our electricity is generated from fossil fuel (coal or gas) with the load balancing function mainly managed through fossil fuel peaking generation plants that respond to load changes. The mix of electricity generation in the UK will change dramatically with a large reduction in the use of coal and gas and an increase in the clean variable, intermittent renewable energy generators. The inherent energy storage capability that we currently enjoy due to our dependence on fossil fuel power generation will then be greatly reduced by 2030. Solutions are needed to address the network challenges that will occur due to a decrease in the implicit energy storage available with the planned reduction in fossil fuel power generation and the integration of large amounts of unpredictable intermittent renewable sources. Energy storage can provide manifold values in i) help meeting of peaky large scale electrical loads, ii) providing time varying energy charge management, iii) allowing renewable power generation to be stored to alleviate intermittence, iv) improving power quality/reliability, v) meeting remote load needs, vi) storage for management of distributed power generation, etc. This proposed research programme will focus on the challenging technical and economic issues faced by integrating large grid scale energy storage with the energy network.