Engineering news
Reactive Technologies, a UK-based smart grid and demand-side response (DSR) company, has demonstrated what it said is a ‘world first’ in smart energy communications technology, following a successful nationwide project with National Grid and SSE.
Reactive’s Grid Data and Measurement System (GDMS) technology offers a more cost-effective way of communicating with electrical assets or devices connected to an electricity network by using the frequency of the electricity network to carry data.
Traditional approaches to communicating with assets require a reliable internet or mobile communication connection in addition to an individual meter, which can costly and limit the viability of DSR schemes that incorporate thousands of smaller assets. Many assets are excluded from existing DSR arrangements due to a lack of remote connectivity.
Jens Madrian, chief financial officer at Reactive said that GDMS can ‘dramatically reduce the cost’ of creating large-scale smart grid networks allowing wider participation in DSR programmes for example by including domestic devices such as fridges, air conditioning systems and hot water tanks.
“Creating flexible demand is the lowest cost and carbon free way of balancing the electricity system which is otherwise managed by turning up or down thermal power plant like diesel generators or gas fired power stations. GDMS offers a new cost-effective way to create flexible demand at scale.”
Additionally, GDMS will give electricity network operators greater insight into the behaviour of ‘prosumers’ – customers who have the ability to generate, consume and store their own electricity.
Reactive said that the data provided by GDMS should provide a clearer picture of how electricity is generated and consumed at the distribution network level. Such information is required for operators tasked with balancing electricity networks that are becoming increasingly complex with the increased variety of assets connected to them such as distributed and intermittent generators like solar along with electric vehicles and batteries.
In theory, GDMS will allow network operators to reduce costs and pass savings on to electricity consumers by improving the accuracy of forecasting models and the purchase of energy reserves.
Cordi O’Hara, director of UK system operator, National Grid said: “Technology that allows devices to communicate quickly will help encourage ‘demand side’ solutions that encourage efficient use of energy and will increasingly become part of the way the grid is managed.”
Marc Borrett, chief executive for Reactive, said: “The European energy industry is turning on its head. For several years we’ve witnessed the gradual transformation of the sector from centralised energy generation, which relies heavily on fossil fuels, to a model that will be determined by the ‘3Ds’ – decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation.
“In the past the energy sector has drawn upon mechanical and electrical engineering skills to meet its technical needs. Now it is time for change. We are bringing highly innovative communications engineering capabilities to the energy space, offering radically different solutions that can address the critical issues facing our energy networks. In GDMS, our communications engineers have invented a truly disruptive technology which has the potential to benefit many stakeholders across the energy supply chain.”