Work Package 3 (WP3) will develop a range of ‘plug in projects’ across Oxfordshire. These will enable us to test how new market structures, developed in WP2 and WP5, can enable network optimisation and flexibility as well as the ability to facilitate peer to peer trading.

Low Carbon Hub lead on the delivery of WP3 supported by project partners Piclo, SSEN and the University of Oxford. They will focus on carrying out real world pilots across Oxfordshire that will cover a range of different flexibility and energy services, relating to power, transport and heat projects and that will:

• Increase local renewable energy generation.
• Develop opportunities to better match our local energy supply to demand through increased storage capacity, or shifting demand.
• Demonstrate different ways to manage network constraints in tandem with the transition from a DNO to DSO model.
• Free up capacity within the existing electricity infrastructure through smarter and more efficient use of the energy we generate, facilitating the shift to low carbon transport and heating.
• Propose and test new business models that allow people to make active choices about how they buy and use energy.
• Work with local communities to identify the social benefits of higher engagement with energy and how to ensure that access to energy is equitable.

In the first phase of the project the team will be:

Modelling existing Low Carbon Hub renewable energy assets to improve our ability to combine short term generation and demand forecasts and to identify which sites are viable for increasing existing onsite generation in combination with local storage.

Modelling potentially flexible loads including University of Oxford buildings.

Developing small scale trials including Solar PV, battery, and electric vehicle combinations and mini-grids to improve their financial viability.

Preparing existing Low Carbon Hub assets for optimisation, such as automation of the weir gates at Sandford Hydro to increase its operational range.

Monitoring small control areas of the distribution network to understand the nature and extents of constraints on the grid.

Developing systems for remote communication with small scale assets including the remote control of storage devices and building management systems.

The second phase will build on this work with further asset optimisation, developing ground-mount PV with battery storage, looking at local energy balancing simulations, and developing new multi-technology projects.