DEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS, ENERGY & INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY

Joint UK-India Clean Energy Centre (JUICE)

Project disclaimer

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Description

Energy is a key driver of economic and sustainable social welfare. It is an essential prerequisite for modern industry and commerce. The need to decarbonise the energy supply is generally accepted and solar photovoltaics (PV) will play a large role in this in both the UK and India. The two countries have seen very rapid installation since both countries introduced their respective market stimulation programmes in 2010, cumulative installations have risen to 5GW (India) and 8.5 GW (UK) by December 2015. This has had a very significant impact on the power system and may endanger quality of supply or grid reliability. JUICE will focus on tools to understand and quantify the associated issues, find the most economical way to ameliorate or control the issues generated. PV can often be located near to load centres but its temporal alignment with conventional demand profiles is far from perfect. Electricity at the wrong time or in the wrong place has very little value and there are already numerous examples of PV (and other sources) having to be curtailed when local demand or capability to transport it are insufficient. As the penetration of installed PV increases, so too does the need for its effective integration into power systems at all levels and including both national and localised networks. Energy storage and demand-side response will play a big role in this as well as managing grid capacity. JUICE would be investigating the amount of generation of PV, the stress this is putting on the network, the cost and benefits of mitigation technology options (storage and demand shift). The inclusion of storage and PV places relatively large power electronic converters into the system, which may also allow further services to stabilise the network to be viable technically as well as economically. It is key to address these challenges across the different research communities, as changes in one technology may change the boundary conditions for others and e.g. economics may change drastically. JUICE will, as an example, look at the viability of storage technologies in dependence of quantity of installed PV, local demand and transfer capacity. JUICE will bring together internationally leading experts in PV technology, applied PV systems, power electronics, electricity networks, energy storage and demand-side response; and through their combined efforts, will develop integrated solutions to ensure that the value of PV generation is optimised in both India and the UK. The techniques and solutions developed will also be readily transferable to many other countries that face similar challenges and contribute to increase economic and environmental welfare in developing and developed countries. The breadth of experience and skills brought by the collective UK and India teams is appropriate to the scale of the problem and will encourage development of novel concepts and solutions to these global challenges. In the UK, the team has been drawn from the national flagship SuperGen projects: SuperSolar, HubNet and SuperStore, which specialise in PV, networks and energy storage respectively. In India, world-leading universities and researchers will be led by IIT-KGP and IIT-B. JUICE will focus on a value optimisation for the end user, i.e. meeting demand at the lowest economic and environmental cost. Specific topics to be addressed include: PV yield optimisation and localisation, transmission and distribution network stability and utilisation, microgrids, the control and lifetime of storage and its role alongside demand response. The overarching integrative management of the centre will ensure that the specific technical developments undertaken by the partners are coordinated and effective in contributing to the overall aims of providing improved energy services, lowering environmental impacts and minimising costs.

Objectives

The Newton Fund builds research and innovation partnerships with developing countries across the world to promote the economic development and social welfare of the partner countries.

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Location

The country, countries or regions that benefit from this Programme.

India

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