Innovation round-up: Spring launches innovation challenge, SSEN and Eon resilience as a service pilot

Utility Week Innovate’s latest round-up includes news of an inaugural innovation challenge from water industry centre of excellence, Spring, and battery project updates from SSEN and Eon, Scottish Water and the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust.

SSEN and Eon to pilot resilience as a service project

As reported by Utility Week, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) and Eon have announced a pilot battery scheme designed to improve electricity resilience in remote and rural areas.

The Resilience as a Service (RaaS) project is a partnership between SSEN, Eon and engineering firm Costain. It is funded through Ofgem’s Network Innovation Competition.

It involves using a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) to restore and maintain power swiftly and automatically in the event of a fault in locations that experience a higher number of power outages.

During this time the network will be temporarily operated in ‘islanded’ mode, where part of it is disconnected from the main electricity grid and operated independently, while engineers resolve the fault.

RaaS would also allow local renewables to continue generating and exporting energy at times when the grid is disrupted.

The battery will be installed at SSEN’s Drynoch primary substation on the Isle of Skye. According to the network operator the scheme would be capable of providing discharge power of 6MVA for up to three seconds and 3MW during continuous operation.

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‘First of a kind’ project allows near real-time flexibility trading for local energy networks

A Western Power Distribution (WPD) led project has enabled flexibility services in the local distribution network to be continuously traded in close to real-time – allowing the market to determine price for the first time, according to project leaders.

The Intraflex trial also claims to lower barriers to entry for asset owners, allowing electric vehicle charging assets to take part and offer flexibility.

As part of Intraflex, WPD partnered with independent sustainable energy marketplace NODES and Smart Grid Consultancy, and worked in tandem with seven flexibility asset owners to create a marketplace where different types of flexibility could compete on a level playing field.

Intraflex allowed low carbon technologies such as EV charging units and battery storage to compete against diesel generators on price for the first time, offering their availability to WPD via a continuous near-term market.

In phase one, WPD recorded 241 trades where a total volume of 50.51MWhs was bought at an average price of £386 MWh. During the second phase of the project, a total of 1,198 trades and 774 MWh of flexibility were bought.

According to WPD, this kind of liquid market for flexibility is needed to release benefits of around £16.7 billion per year identified by the Carbon Trust and Imperial College in their GB Flexibility Report, as well as to reduce costs for customers.

Scottish Water installs first large-scale battery system

Scottish Water has installed its first large-scale battery storage system at its Perth wastewater treatment site to retain energy generated from its solar panel array.

As reported by Utility Week, the batteries and solar panels are part of a £2 million scheme to cut the sewage plant’s carbon footprint by around 160 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The 312kW battery system is comprised of four vanadium redox flow batteries manufactured Invinity Energy Systems with a combined storage capacity of 0.8MWh. They are connected 2,520 solar panels with a maximum output of more than 1MW

Scottish Water Horizons, the water company’s commercial arm, oversaw the investment and is exploring opportunities to include more battery storage across the organisation’s asset portfolio.

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Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust to benefit from advanced battery storage system

Resource management firm Veolia’s specialist energy team has commissioned a battery energy storage system at the 500 bed Rotherham Hospital as part of a 20 year Energy Performance Contract (EPC).

According to Veolia, the upgrade will contribute to targeted savings of over one million pounds per year, provide an energy income, increase resilience of the energy supply, and enable the Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust to cut carbon emissions by 49,620 tonnes.

Based on the latest lithium-ion technology, the storage system comprises multiple battery cells and is capable of delivering 500kWh, equivalent to the energy output from 130,000 standard AA size batteries.

Control takes place automatically via a third party aggregator, which manages electricity assets to counter load imbalances in response to changes in energy demands.

Additionally, by operating in an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), mode the system also delivers greater electrical power supply resilience for critical healthcare activities, such as operating theatres, by providing power if grid supply is lost.

Net-zero-focused innovation challenge launched

Spring, the water sector centre of excellence, has launched its first innovation challenge to help the water industry achieve its net zero carbon ambitions.

The first part of the challenge, which opened on 14 February, is looking for implementable innovation ideas that can bring about a reduction in operational emissions from water and wastewater treatment.

From April, the second part of the challenge will open to innovators to submit ideas around the wider theme of achieving net zero carbon.

Spring began life as part of Ofwat’s Water Innovation 2050 strategy and received £250,000 funding through the regulator’s innovation fund, which was matched by UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) members. The online Spring platform was launched in September as a hub for innovators, academia and water companies to share resources and work around commonly experienced challenges in the water sector.

In line with Spring’s founding mission, collaboration will be encouraged between innovators and the participating water companies entering the challenges.

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Anglian Water marks halfway point in inaugural Strategic Pipeline Alliance project

Anglian Water has reached the halfway point on the first section of new major pipeline route between Lincoln and Ancaster.

Part of Anglian’s Water Resources Management Plan, the 24km pipeline is the inaugural scheme for Anglian Water’s Strategic Pipeline Alliance (SPA), which will create hundreds of kilometers of interconnecting pipelines, making it longer than the M6 and the largest water infrastructure project the UK has seen for a generation according to Anglian.

The water company has also submitted further planning applications to Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk Local Planning Authorities for permission to begin work on a further 99km of pipeline running from Grantham in Lincolnshire to Bexwell in Norfolk.

This next stage will include two new pumping stations and a new covered treated water reservoir at Welby Heath.  Subject to planning consent work will commence on site later in 2022.

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