London’s low carbon energy
future: what do you need to
know?
• Chair: Anne McElvoy, journalist & broadcaster
• Ben Wilson, Director of Strategy & Regulation and CFO, UK
Power Networks
• Alastair Martin, Founder, Flexitricity
• Bob Currie, Technical Director, Smart Grid Solutions
• Alex Bettencourt, Managing Director, SmartGrid Canada
Sidney Room
Base London: smart grids panel
discussion
Ben Wilson
Director of Strategy & Regulation and CFO
21 June 2012
www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
UK Power Networks: c.30% of the UK
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
Total
% of
Industry
End Customers
Millions
8.0
28%
Service Area
km²
29,165
12%
Underground
Network km
134,767
29%
Overhead
Network km
47,391
15%
Energy Distributed
TWh
89.4
28%
Peak Demand
MW
16,229
N/A
New Connections
130,768
35%
5
Our vision
To be:
And achieve upper third performance by 2013/14
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
6
Uncertain times in the UK utility sector
Significant capex required in UK utility sector
• high risk to gas and electricity
security of supply in 5 – 10 years
200
(£bn)
• unprecedented levels of investment
required (up to £200bn)
Total: 148.9
150
10.4
• wholesale price signals are
inadequate
60.0
100
Key themes:
200.0
45.0
50
110.0
• high retail prices are increasingly
unaffordable
5.0
14.0
14.5
0
'Top down' Ofgem
estimate
'Bottom up' total of
visible capex
Networks – Ofgem price controls
Networks – ENSG
Offshore wind
EMR estimate of
electricity investment
requirements
Networks – National Grid
New nuclear
New CCGTs 12.3GW
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
4
A different world by 2030
2030 forecast
East
London
South
East
UKPN total
Solar PV installation
418k
135k
240k
793k
869MW
0
257MW
1,126MW
Heat pumps
(% of house with heat
pump)
625k
(19%)
172k
(8%)
334k
(16%)
1,131k
Plugged in electric
vehicles
545k
227k
349k
1,122k
Onshore wind
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
8
Our strategic response
• UK Government has clear policy objectives for the transition to a low carbon
economy – we are actively supporting those objectives by enabling the transition
Present
DNO
Non-flexible
demand
Non-flexible
DG
Possible Future
DSO
Non-regulated
Technical Aggregation
Commercial
Aggregation
Demand
Response
DG
Contracts
Network
Storage
Storage
White
Goods
Cooling
Heat
EVs
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
Enabling
Infrastructure
Dispatchable Resources
Ancillary Services
Flexible Demand
9
The benefit of optimisation (system level)
Optimised EV and HP operation
Non-optimised EV and HP operation
120
100
100
80
80
EV charging
60
HP demand
40
Original demand
HP demand
40
23:00
22:00
21:00
20:00
19:00
18:00
17:00
16:00
15:00
14:00
13:00
12:00
11:00
10:00
09:00
08:00
07:00
06:00
05:00
04:00
03:00
02:00
0
01:00
0
00:00
20
Non-optimised heating / charging cycle
EV charging
60
20
Time
78 GW
Original demand
00:00
01:00
02:00
03:00
04:00
05:00
06:00
07:00
08:00
09:00
10:00
11:00
12:00
13:00
14:00
15:00
16:00
17:00
18:00
19:00
20:00
21:00
22:00
23:00
117 GW
Demand (GW)
Demand (GW)
120
Time
Optimised heating / charging cycle
Note: optimised operation highly dependent on storage
Source: ENA / SEDG
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
10
Dealing with change
 A cultural and organisation challenge for network utilities
• Twenty years of BAU with falling costs
 The macro environment is hard to predict even in the short term
• Low carbon technologies
• Economic climate
 The unbundled UK industry structure adds complexity
• For the utilities
• For the customer
 2012. UK Power Networks. All rights reserved
11
London’s low carbon energy
future: what do you need to
know?
Alastair Martin, Founder, Flexitricity
Sidney Room
London’s low carbon energy
future: what do you need to
know?
Bob Currie, Technical Director, Smart Grid Solutions
Sidney Room
London’s low carbon energy
future: what do you need to
know?
Alex Bettencourt, Managing Director, SmartGrid Canada
Sidney Room