Pilot trials underway to test socialised benefits from coordinated energy control
People are increasingly committed to taking action to reduce the carbon impact of our homes and communities. This call to action is driven by increased awareness of the negative impacts of emissions on our climate and the increased frequency of extreme weather events. The popularity of Citizen’s Assemblies and Community Energy Groups are testament to this. The Just Transition Movement which began in Scotland is now being taken forward across the rest of the UK and beyond. These themes of climate action and a Just Transition combine with the need for sustainable economic growth require innovative solutions:
Accelerating the deployment of domestic and commercial-scale low carbon technologies supported by intelligent control and optimisation methods to mitigate impacts on the electricity network;
Replacing fossil fuel heating systems with electrified alternatives and synchronising their operation with Time-of-Use Tariffs to make these more affordable;
Improving the capability of Local Authorities to support the delivery of net-zero emission developments and the retrofit transition to net-zero;
The ability of communities to access localised renewable energy services and retain more control and capture more value locally.
ZUoS is a new concept around energy services, focusing at the local level. It processes multiple external signals – like weather forecasts, grid carbon intensity, supplier tariffs and network signals – to forecast energy generation and demand. The ZUoS energy services platform sends signals to many different types of low carbon technologies, like batteries, EV charging, electric heating, and energy smart appliances, to create a smart local energy system – with energy flows optimised at the building level, at the neighbourhood level, and across the local network.
In this way, ZUoS enables the individual components of the low carbon system to collaborate to achieve both individual and socialised objectives for the whole system, providing a significant benefit over purely ‘selfish’ home based energy management systems, which as well as disproportionately benefiting those who can afford them and exacerbating inequalities, can have rebound effects which adversely affect the networks.
The ZUoS technology trials are now live in both Huntly and Perth, through innovation funding from BEIS, SBRI, Scottish Enterprise and Perth & Kinross Council.