The LVOE project focuses on innovative LV (Low Voltage) power electronic devices (LV Optimiser, Dynamic Voltage Optimiser and Smart ZigZag) designed to address voltage quality and imbalance, enabling the vast adoption of Low Carbon Technology (LCT) connections within the LV network.
LV protection relies on fuses, which are reliable but lack sensitivity. Using novel AI protection algorithms faults can be separated from LCT which traditional fuses could not. AI algorithms will also plan the location and sizing of LVOE solutions for optimal benefits.
LVOE will provide technical solutions to dynamically operate the network, allowing for the widespread introduction of LCTs.
Liverpool faces complex, interconnected non-technical barriers to delivery of its transition to net-zero carbon energy. Led by Liverpool City Council (LCC), Phase Two will demonstrate an innovative systemic approach to dismantling these barriers, creating and demonstrating solutions that can be replicated across the city and the UK.
The project covers multiple energy **vectors**, **barriers**, and energy **end-use sectors**. This great breadth is counter-balanced and channelled through specific **Exemplar Projects** -- a set of location-specific interventions identified in Phase One -- in which barriers are illustrated, and solutions demonstrated.
Five sets of barriers are addressed across three energy vectors (power, heat, transport): 1) weak energy-end-user support; 2) inadequate economic models and investment case; 3) inadequate private/public capacity and skills to deliver city-wide; 4) a planning framework in need of change; and 5) scaling/ replication challenges ranging from inadequate supply chains to absent city-wide alignment.
For example, whether for domestic heat and power or for electrifying moored shipping or public transport, the design and operation of energy networks remains a major barrier: 1) end-users need to understand the benefits resulting from disrupting their everyday priorities; 2) the economic case must be clear; 3) delivery capacity needs to be sufficient; 4) planning must allow for interventions; and lastly 5) their design must be replicable for use elsewhere.
Two end-use sectors are in scope: 1) new residential and industrial development sites; and 2) domestic decarbonisation and retrofit. Exemplars include shore power (to replace heavy fuel oil use in moored shipping), ground-source heat from city parks to feed local heat networks, sheltered housing retrofit, city-centre listed buildings, leisure centre energy hubs, and a major new housing development.
Findings will feed into innovative net-zero tools, for comparison of individual interventions on a like-for-like basis, as well as at city-wide / regional level to enable planning at the macro scale. The ClimateOS software proposed has a world-wide reach and will enable Liverpool to compare approaches with other cities in the UK, Europe and the US.
The consortium comprises committed private, public and academic partners with the heft to deliver the Exemplars in a subsequent Phase Three. LCC is the key convenor and has a wide estate; Onward Homes owns over 6000 homes; SPEN owns and operates the local grid; Regent Capital is a locally active Asset Manager; and New Resource Partners and Decentralised Energy Solutions bring new net-zero software, completing an active partnership in place since 2020\.
The Net Zero Industry Wales members are committed to transition towards producing more sustainable goods & services in Wales, at a pace needed to meet the legally binding targets. The proposed cluster project will build on Wales's Industrial Heritage and enables to kick-start the Green Industrial Revolution within the North East Wales cluster, to create a trusted, sustainable, prosperous & resilient industry that the citizens of Wales can continue to be proud off.
The proposed project builds on the momentum gained within the Deeside Decarbonisation Forum and the Net Zero Wales initiative, to further increase collaboration between organisations, strengthen decarbonisation planning skills (in close cooperation with the gas and electricity networks from the outset) and enable development of organisational structures for place-based decarbonisation, within the two clean growth hubs.
The goal set by the North East Wales Industrial Decarbonisation (NEW-ID) Plan is to substantially decarbonise Industry in the geographic region by 2030 and full decarbonise it by 2050\. We have a significant industrial base of signed- up partners that requires support, through the formation of the formal cluster, to decarbonise its activities, through a range of decarbonisation measures. The identification of these measures will shape the overall industrial decarbonisation pathway for the cluster, which is the main output of the project and aim to align itself with the Local Energy Action Plans of Flintshire and Wrexham councils.
The Deeside "Clean Growth Hub" is located in Flintshire and builds on Deeside Decarbonisation Forum (DDF). The DDF has created an active collaboration of over 40 businesses in the local area that work together to progress towards a decarbonised future for themselves and in support of the wider region.
The Wrexham "Clean Growth Hub" encompasses the Wrexham Industrial estate, which is one of the largest industrial estates in Europe, on which a wide range of manufacturing sites are located that operate in a wide range of sectors. A couple of companies on this estate have initiated projects in close collaboration with companies within the The Net-Zero-North-West cluster and the aim through this project is to expand the collaboration in the local area, through this project.
The proposed project in the Wrexham and Deeside Clean Growth hubs, will inform the further development of the existing electricity infrastructure operated by SP-Manweb and proposed hydrogen infrastructure, which under development by Wales & West Utilities (WWU), who operate the local gas distribution network.
The Net Zero NW Cluster Plan will set out the transition to net-zero for industry in the North West of England and North East Wales. It will describe the investments, technologies, infrastructure changes and sequencing required to fulfil the UK's Industrial Clusters Mission.
The project focuses on two key objectives:
* Establishing a low-carbon industrial cluster by 2030, by deploying anchor investment projects including HyNet hydrogen and CCUS infrastructure
* Establishing a net-zero carbon industrial cluster by 2040, underpinned by multi-vectored industrial decarbonisation solutions
Industry and public sector bodies, building on the preliminary research completed in Phase 1, will collaboratively promote and engage on plans to decarbonise, ensuring businesses have a strong voice in planning decarbonisation activity in line with current and future business needs whilst leveraging inward investment opportunities.
Energy consumers, networks, generators and academia will research and quantify data and evidence necessary to reach consensus on the most viable options to decarbonise in line with national and local political declarations.
The project will engage and support other complementary initiatives in the region, including but not limited to HyNet (an anchor project), the NW Hydrogen Alliance, E-Port, Mersey Tidal Energy, North West Nuclear Arc and others.
The largest industries in the cluster account for over 6 million tonnes of carbon emissions per annum, from diverse facilities that include oil refining, downstream processing, cement, fertiliser production, glass manufacturing, base chemicals, food manufacturing, automotive, and personal care products. Further industrial emissions are associated with other industry across the broader NW region, extending up to Lancashire and Cumbria. Industrial process energy and heat consumed across all businesses in the area is over 27 TWhr per annum-the region of North Cheshire alone uses 5% of UK power. Several manufacturing and light industrial businesses reliant on energy intensive processes are located in business parks with the potential to employ shared infrastructure, including heat networks, smart grids and decentralised generation.
The project takes an industry and innovation-led approach guiding the decarbonisation of the first UK industrial cluster on a low-cost, low-regrets basis whilst exploring opportunities for shared infrastructure with the South Wales industrial cluster and others.
By enabling multiple industrial facilities to reduce their emissions by the greatest possible extent, with knock-on effects in the reduction of commercial, domestic and transport emissions, the Net Zero NW Cluster Plan will realise over 33,000 new jobs, over £4bn investment and the world's first net-zero industrial cluster.
A major theme of the UK's low-carbon energy transition is the **rise of the consumer**. No longer just energy buyers on the end of power lines, we can send energy services "back up the wire", reduce costs and generate new revenues in a new, consumer-centric energy world.
In 2030, local power plants (mostly solar and wind) will comprise nearly half of UK capacity, up from a quarter in 2018\. Much will be traded peer-to-peer by a new class of energy "prosumers" offering a range of clean energy services locally, and to the grid operators.
The **Liverpool Multi-vector Energy Exchange** (LMEX) will create a detailed design for a city-wide, smart local energy system that will greatly facilitate clean energy, electric vehicles, and low-carbon heating and cooling. Our design will open the door to a host of innovative technologies including EV charging; heat networks with ground / water / air source heat pumps; solar-powered hydrogen production to replace gas supply and power fuel cells; battery and REDOX based energy storage; and a host of flexible demand approaches.
LMEX comprises two critical layers -- both first-of-a-kind. The first is hardware: a **Smart Network Controller** with capabilities far beyond the present market, to communicate with, control and optimise in real-time myriad local energy assets. The second is software-based: the **Flexibility Exchange Platform** (FXP), through which prosumers will trade peer-to-peer with full transparency, automatic matching, and without third-party intervention. FXP will be grafted on to the control layer so that a) all buy and sell transactions can be honoured; and b) the technical limits of the system cannot be stressed/violated.
LMEX Project is about **commercially-driven R&D**. It benefits from real-world track record in developing smart energy networks, though the city-wide scale envisaged here is far greater than anything in the energy world today.
LMEX is about tangible benefit to prosumers and energy system operators:
* New flexibility players: all sizes, user-types and technologies able to trade clean, flexible energy services across power, heat and cool, and transport.
* More, cheaper, locally produced energy for lower consumer bills.
* Reduced import from the grid for reduced network losses and avoidance of network reinforcement and associated disruptions.
* More clean energy, leading to improved local air quality, and reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.
* New revenue streams: access for participants to a widening spread of local and national energy market segments, in which new revenues streams are emerging steadily.