Generation Integrated Energy Storage - A Paradigm Shift

这个项目将评估一类融合了发电和存储的系统，以了解它们在未来能源系统中可能扮演的角色。他们以低系统成本按需提供低碳能源的能力将从技术、经济和政策角度进行调查。随着各种可再生能源在电力消费中所占比例越来越大，能源生产和能源消耗的匹配能力正迅速占据中心地位。灵活的(可分派的)燃煤和天然气发电厂正在被取代，以降低碳排放。目前，核能和可再生能源技术的配置通常都是尽可能多地发电，而不考虑当时的电力需求。独立储能--将多余的电能转化为中间能源，然后再转换回来--正在成为这些发电技术的重要合作伙伴，但对于在不久的将来所需的职责来说，它的成本高得令人望而却步。积极管理电力需求(通过关闭或推迟负荷)以及与邻国的电力互连也将发挥重要作用，但这些也有成本，它们不会消除对存储的需求。这一项目将建立对采用不同的、可能低得多的成本方法的一类系统的深入了解。这些发电集成储能(GES)系统在按需将能量转换为电能之前，以一种方便的形式存储能量。假设通过在一个系统中集成生成和存储，可以实现最低成本和最高性能的存储。这避免了将一次能源(如风能、太阳能、核能)转化为电能，然后转化为中间形式，然后再转化为电能的费用和效率低下的问题。例如，聚光式太阳能发电厂产生的热量可以比直接发电和运营独立的电库储存的成本和损失低得多。低碳GES系统在可再生和核能应用中都有广泛的机会。研究团队在风能、核能和液化空气存储方面的专业知识将直接应用于所有这三个领域的GES系统。该项目还将为全球可持续发展对能源系统的更广泛意义建立一个框架。将开发表征高性能GES系统的技术和热力学指标，并用于与独立发电和存储当量进行比较。这项研究奠定的理论基础将远远超出当前项目的应用范围。将规划和宣传现有和未来技术的机会，支持和加快这一领域的进一步工作。这些技术的部署和运作将通过务实的实物期权经济分析进行建模。将详细审查将发电和存储融合在一起的独特政策和经济考虑，考虑到挑战，并为监管和财务障碍提出解决方案。综合起来，这些将决定GES系统的实质性部署的价值和范围。在揭示GES系统的潜力时，研究小组将纠正能源系统思维上的差距，及时告知未来十年将有数十亿英镑的支出。通过提供分析和部署这些系统的工具，这项研究将在英国和世界其他地区的能源基础设施中开辟一条具有成本效益的灵活性的新途径。

This project will assess a class of systems that blend electricity generation and storage, to understand the role that they could play in future energy systems. Their ability to deliver low-carbon energy on demand, at low system cost, will be investigated from technical, economic, and policy standpoints.With a growing fraction of electricity consumption being supplied by variable renewable energy sources, the ability to match energy generation and energy consumption is rapidly taking centre stage. Flexible ('dispatchable') coal and gas plants are being displaced to lower carbon emissions. At present, both nuclear and renewable energy technologies are generally configured to generate as much electricity as possible, regardless of the electricity demand at the time. Standalone energy storage, in which surplus electricity is converted to an intermediate energy form and then back again, is emerging as a vital partner to these generation technologies but it is prohibitively expensive for the duties that will be required in the near future. Active management of electricity demand (by shutting down or deferring loads) and electrical interconnections with neighbouring countries will also play important roles but these also have costs and they will not obviate the need for storage.This project will build a deep understanding of a class of system which takes a different and potentially much lower cost approach. These Generation Integrated Energy Storage (GIES) systems, store energy in a convenient form before converting it to electricity on demand. The hypothesis is that the lowest cost and highest performance storage can be achieved by integrating generation and storage within one system. This avoids the expense and inefficiency of transforming primary energy (e.g. wind, solar, nuclear) into electricity, then into an intermediate form, and later back to electricity. For example, the heat produced by a concentrating solar power plant can be stored at far lower cost and with lower losses than producing electricity directly and operating a standalone electricity store.A broad range of opportunities exist for low-carbon GIES systems, in both renewable and nuclear applications. The research team's expertise in wind, nuclear, and liquefied air storage will be applied directly to GIES systems in all three. The project will also establish a framework for the wider significance of GIES to energy systems. Technical and thermodynamic metrics that characterise high performing GIES systems will be developed, and used to compare with standalone generation and storage equivalents. The theoretical groundwork laid by this research will have applications far beyond the current project. Opportunities for current and future technologies will be mapped out and publicised, supporting and accelerating further work in the field. The deployment and operation of such technologies will be modelled by means of a pragmatic real options economic analysis. The unique policy and economic considerations of fusing generation and storage will be reviewed in detail, considering challenges and proposing solutions to regulatory and financial hurdles. Taken in concert, these will determine the value and scope for substantial deployment of GIES systems.In bringing to light the potential of the class of GIES systems, the research team will rectify a gap in energy systems thinking, in time to inform what will be a multi-billion pound expenditure in the coming decade. By providing the tools to analyse and deploy these systems, the research will open up a new avenue for cost-effective flexibility across the energy infrastructure of the UK and other regions worldwide.