CAG has just completed a summative assessment report for Centrica on this EU funded research project. The core objective of the project was to investigate the potential for developing a local energy market using Cornwall as a testbed for this development.
The rationale was to develop a route to market for both generation and demand in a constrained local electricity network. The intention was that this would help to bring forward investment in new generation and storage assets, avoiding or delaying the need for expensive capital expenditure on network upgrades.
The development of a local energy market could provide an alternative approach to network upgrades, by seeking to enable a more dynamic approach to managing the distribution network, working in concert with households and businesses, enabling active management and monitoring of energy demand/supply through a local energy market platform
Centrica installed a range of smart, low-carbon energy technologies (including monitoring equipment, battery systems, solar panels, combined heat and power, and a wind turbine) in homes and businesses across the county. But the centrepiece was an auction-based marketplace, an online platform for trading flexibility, aimed at reducing constraints on the network. This virtual market place allowed the national system operator and the local network operator to buy flexibility simultaneously for the first time.
More information can be found by going to the Centrica project website.