Resilient Electricity Networks for Great Britain (RESNET)

The resilience of GB's electricity energy network is being challenged on three fronts: (i) policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions through decarbonising energy supply will alter substantially the existing supply mix; (ii) decarbonising of the 'energy' system will likely involve considerable shift of previously non-electric energy demand onto the electricity network with accompanying changes in how much electricity is needed and when it is needed; and (iii) the expected mean changes in climate will alter the electricity demand and performance of electricity infrastructure, and increased severity and frequency of extreme weather events will impact on the electrical network and distribution systems.To address these multiple challenges, the RESNET project (Resilient Electricity Networks for Great Britain) will develop and demonstrate a comprehensive systems-level approach to analysing the resilience of the existing and proposed electricity networks. It will develop, test and refine tools for evaluating adaptation measures designed to enhance the resilience of the network including societal and technical adaptation. The work will consist of 5 work packages (WPs).WP1 will produce future climate scenarios for three key weather variables where changes in average characteristics can impact on the operational resilience of the network and changes in extremes can impact the infrastructural resilience of the network: temperature (and solar radiation), rainfall (with associated flooding) and wind. WP2 will develop electricity demand and supply scenarios, consistent both with the climate change impacts scenarios from WP1, and levels of decarbonisation required to meet policy targets. WP3 will couple the hazard model from WP1 with demand and supply scenarios from WP2 with a dynamic, spatially explicit, power systems simulation model. WP4 will use the model to quantify the potential impacts of future climate upon the day to day (operational) resilience and resilience to extreme events (infrastructure network resilience) of the overall GB electricity transmission system (i.e. the National Grid), and case study distribution networks. Against these infrastructure, demand and climate futures we will test the effectiveness of a wide range of adaptation options for improving the overall resilience of the energy system. Adaptation is not seen here as a purely technical activity but should consider societal adaptation where by consumers change their practices to cope with changing levels of network reliability. WP5 will assess the impact of the future vulnerability of the network upon organisations and households, taking into account climate change impacts, and consider how these may adapt.Contemporary UK society has grown accustomed to a reliable supply of electricity with any interruption to supply typically considered, socially, politically and economically undesirable, almost regardless of the technical and economic implications of maintaining such high levels of integrity. This expected level of service places further constraints on an electricity network already facing multiple challenges. Ultimately, if the UK's energy system is to achieve the urgent and rapid mitigation implied by the Government's 2 deg C commitment, the electricity system will have to undergo profound changes over the short, medium and long term. Pivotal to a successful and rapidly decarbonising electricity system is a transmission and distribution network that is resilient to climate change impacts, capable of balancing different types of low carbon supply in the context of a changing demand profile. Early and integrated analysis of these systemic challenges will pay significant dividends in developing an affordable, robust and low carbon electricity system resilient to the direct and indirect impacts of changing environmental and socio-economic drivers.

The RESNET project has been designed to explore issues of adaptation to climate change impacts and resilience in Britain's electricity networks under different climate change scenarios. Providing methods that help secure the security and resilience of the electricity network will provide a wide public benefit. Enhancing the future resilience of GB's electricity transmission network is a central part of the country's adaptation response to climate change. A reliable electricity supply underpins GB's economic and social well being, from the provision of basic heating and lighting to powering transport systems, manufacturing capability and the delivery of essential services such as health, safety and security. One of the core objectives of the research programme is to identify adaptation measures to existing infrastructure and to provide advice on enhancing the resilience of future network architecture. This benefits the economy in two ways, firstly through the potential for technology transfer of adaptation technologies to both the domestic and international markets and secondly by supporting the productivity of the GB economy by the provision of a reliable and predictable electricity supply. The project has been designed in collaboration with research beneficiaries including UKCIP, the National Grid, Arup, the Environment Agency and the Committee on Climate Change Secretariat. We will be seeking input from these, and other organisations, to ensure we maximise our impact and have allocated 4k to support this activity. The direct beneficiaries of this part of the research will be the National Grid, supply and generation companies, in terms of the technical knowledge transfer. Policy makers will benefit as the methods developed here will be informative to Defra's national climate change risk assessment. Moreover, through a PhD sponsored by the National Grid we shall have a direct route to impact their capacity to analyse electricity resilience. Co-Is Dawson and Kilsby are members of the British Energy Climate Change Working Group providing an avenue for the direct transfer of knowledge generated in RESNET. Outputs from WP2 include new spatially correlated national scale weather generator and a UKCP09 consistent wind storm model to be returned to the wide range of UKCP09 users. The behavioural responses to future adaptation measures can inform how organisations change their electricity usage practices in response to climate change. Core users such as the NHS, network rail and emergency services will be engaged through WP5, co-producing knowledge to inform recommendations on institutional responses. In addition to involving end-users in the research itself, the project will maintain a website detailing the objectives and outputs of the project; publish a report based on the findings of each work package for wide dissemination and organise public lectures (with podcasts) and conduct dissemination seminars during the research program. We shall maximise impact through mobilising the Tyndall Centre stakeholder network to disseminate outcomes to a wide array of scientists, policy makers and practitioners. We will explore commercial opportunities with our universities and consultancy partners (e.g. Arup). WP4 for example produces a probabilistic power system security assessment tool, this tool will not only provide methods to evaluate the resilience of electricity systems that will be of interest to many countries but will also be able to be used by the insurance industry to gauge the risk to their future portfolios with minimal extension. Given the new understanding and tools that the RESNET project will provide, these organisations will be in an unprecedented position to understand processes of long term change, adaptation and resilience of electricity networks. Many UK utility owners and consultancies have major international businesses, so the work has the potential to contribute to their competitiveness overseas.