Community-scale Energy Demand Reduction in India (CEDRI)

CEDRI is a consortium of expertise in sustainable buildings, power electronics, demand modelling and energy behaviours across Heriot-Watt University, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, IIT Bombay and the Tiruchirappalli National Institute of Technology. The project will, through the application of demand synthesis models to Indian case-studies, propose clear guidance for demand reduction/management in households to ensure future-resilient provision of electricity to Indian communities. The project sees a neglect of supply limitations as being a key risk that might hamper future demand reduction strategies.

Whilst many countries are seeing significant change in the use of energy in homes and the provision of that energy through local energy networks, the pace of change recorded in India is particularly notable. The "refresh" rate of the housing stock is high (with new build constituting a much higher percentage of the housing stock than many developed countries) and, simultaneously, the approach to delivering electricity to those homes is changing (e.g. the growth in distributed renewable generation, such as solar photovoltaics). If further change is to be planned amongst this already uncertain landscape, in the form of community-wide energy demand reduction strategies, then a full impact of such measures must be understood. Minimising cooling requirements, controlling/managing appliance loads and encouraging distributed generation should all be promoted in a way that i) is consistent and complementary to a functioning local electricity network and ii) relate to measures that are likely to be accepted across communities, rather than having only niche appeal.

The CEDRI project will allow for community electricity demand modelling through applied aggregation algorithms, converting small samples of individual building demand profiles into community-level profiles. After carrying out surveys and workshops with householders, the project will identify the demand-reducing measures likely to succeed in such regions (informed by real case-study communities and empirical data) and apply these to the community demand models to quantify potential impact. The ability of such changes to improve the local energy network will be fully investigated, such that measures deemed to successfully reduce total energy demand can be managed in a way that improves key characteristics of that network (such as frequency, voltage and peak demand). The project will therefore provide guidance that will ensure that approaches to demand reduction "co-evolve" with the methods used to supply electricity to residential communities, over future timescales that already have considerable levels of uncertainty.

Academic impact will be achieved through standard routes of conferences and publication using the vast experience and contacts of the project team. Conferences will be highlighted that have UK, European, and global significance - but with specific dissemination routes in India (see Case for Support and Pathways to Impact). With our participation with the UK National Centre of Energy Systems Integration (CESI), UK-visibility of this work will be high. CESI also provides links to institutions outside that network directly but in close contact - such as the EPSRC End Use Energy Demand centres and other EPSRC projects such as WholeSEM. There is also considerable activity within the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) in the area of energy systems, such as the work of the Future Energy System Pathways, and synergies with other UK-India initiatives, such as the Joint UK-India Clean Energy Centre (JUICE) consortium. CEDRI will therefore contribute to this wider research initiative to improve links between UK and India in this mutually important field of work.

Non-academic impact will be achieved through the use of workshops (during the project) and a final dissemination event, with an accompanying industry-focussed report that crystallises the findings of the project. Two workshops are designed to receive feedback (as described in WP3) from householders associated with the chosen case-studies, but it will also provide an opportunity to disseminate initial findings to that audience. At the same stage of the project, there will be a third workshop with a practitioner audience, such that the direction that the project is heading can be re-calibrated based on industry feedback (if required). However, this will again provide an opportunity to have an impact on that audience from the initial findings, setting up (later in the project) the final dissemination event that will bring together all the key recommendations of the work for Indian practitioners across the different built environment and electricity network sectors covered by the project. Identified practitioners who will benefit from this work include: those in housing associations/organisation looking for sustainable demand-reduction strategies; regional authorities; housebuilding sector; electricity network providers and those involved with the maintenance of assets in those networks; policy-makers wishing to develop evidence-based policy around near-future energy networks in regions of India, and the important role of energy demand within these networks; technology providers (e.g. mechanical cooling, energy-efficient demand-side technologies, solar PV and other distributed generation) aiming to understand the wider impact of their technology (and the potential market).