NanocompEIM Phase 2 - Nanocomposite Advanced Electrical Insulation Systems for Enhanced HVAC and HVDC Energy Networks

Two of the most critical global challenges currently being faced are energy security and climate change. In the UK, massive investment will be required in the next decade, both to replace ageing plant and to allow for the incorporation of renewable sources. These changes will involve a paradigm shift in the ways in which we generate and transmit electricity. Since a central element of all items of power plant is electrical insulation, meeting our future energy challenges will involve the deployment of new innovative plant which, in turn, will require the development and exploitation of a new generation of high performance insulation materials.
This project brings together Alstom Grid, Supergrid Institute, GnoSys Global and the University of Southampton. This consortium will develop advanced materials for use in next generation HVAC and HVDC systems, which will reduce carbon emissions, improve security of supply and reduce overall costs. The strategy centres on the use of nanocomposites as high performance dielectrics - nanodielectrics - and although this concept has attracted enormous interest since first being proposed in the mid-1990s, the field is plagued by irreproducibility. Indeed, entirely contradictory effects are often reported for nominally equivalent systems. Thus, while it has been shown that nanodielectrics can exhibit greatly improved properties, if the technological potential of these materials is ever to be realised, then it is essential that production strategies be developed to fabricate materials repeatably with known and controlled structures and properties.
The work programme builds upon and exploits the NanocompEIM feasibility project supported by TSB (Ref.101144) and will progressively build from optimising functionalised and reactive nanofillers to meet wider applications in insulating components, through industrial scale up of materials processing, to the manufacture and testing of large components. The work is divided into a number of work packages (WP). In WP1, functionalised and reactive nanofillers will be optimised to meet identified HV application needs; WP2 will concern the industrial scale-up of materials processing for reliable large volume rapid batch processing of nanocomposites, together with the development of quality assurance metrics to ensure reliability and repeatability. In WP3, the resulting materials will be used to manufacture a number of large components, which will subsequently be tested in WP4, to verify large component performance. These results will be fed back into WP1 for further refinement of material factors. WP5 will focus on exploitation and dissemination and will include value-chain analysis and the development of strategic partnering and licensing strategies to facilitate broader use of the IP produced in the project. A key element in this is the establishment of custom materials supply and production arrangements through GnoSys, which will directly facilitate the adoption of the materials we will develop outside the immediate consortium. Finally, WP6 will be devoted to effective project management.
From the above, sound quantitative structure-property-process relationships (QSPPR) will be established that will enable nanodielectrics to be used reliably within industry. It is commercially innovative to carry out this development with the engagement of the complete supply chain, from materials suppliers, through manufacturers of components and equipment, to end users in the form of the UK transmission system operators. While the project will focus on the electrical application of nanocomposites, the consequences of the knowledge produced will be much wider, since the QSPPRs that will emerge will be applicable in many different technology areas that employ advanced materials. As such, this project will generate a range of environmental, economic and societal impacts.

This project will deliver the following impacts.
ECONOMIC: The exploitation of application-optimised nanocomposite materials and components will meet a priority and immediate market need for advanced materials for use in next-generation AC and DC power plant. The EU uses £2bn/year of electrical insulation polymers and we estimate a nanocomposite market opportunity growing to £200M/year in 10 years. Higher performance insulation will facilitate markets along this supply chain: materials; components; original equipment manufacturers (OEM) (estimate: £100M, £200M, £2bn/year, respectively). This will be driven through GnoSys' Custom Materials Supply (CMS) and licensing, which will seek to generate £20M/year in 10 years (65% materials sales, 20% license income, 15% bespoke materials development). Lower whole life costs of the resulting products will aid market growth. UK transmission system operators will invest ~£15bn in the next decade in new infrastructure; 5GW of investment in onshore wind generation worth >£0.5bn is planned in the next 5 years and comparable levels of investment will continue to 2050; UK investment in offshore wind is estimated to lead to 35 GW of capacity, which equates to a market of >£5bn over next 20 years for converters; for 2020-2025, the global market for HVDC Convertors is >£50bn. These estimates of market potential are consistent with existing data; the 2014 IEA Renewables Report indicates a global investment of around $250bn in new renewable power capacity in 2014 alone.
SOCIAL: The technology developed here will support global sales of UK-made HV systems and consequently grow employment. It will create ~40 jobs at SME GnoSys in 5 years and protect >3450 UK high-value jobs in OEM and in the OEM supply chain. By providing offshore power equipment with a 5-10% reduction in whole life costs, the project will help to meet UK Government's post-2020 electricity cost target of <£100/MWh and will grow UK on- and offshore wind energy employment - currently 18,300 and 17,100 employees respectively. We also anticipate that CMS technology will help protect >3,000 jobs in the electronics, automotive and aerospace industries in the UK, where the availability of optimised materials is critical to competitiveness; HM Government has estimated that UK materials-related industries have a yearly turnover of £197bn. This project allows the manufacture of higher reliability plant, supporting improvements in the availability of new and retrofitted electrical network equipment. This will reduce transmission interruptions linked to individual asset failures. The results from this project will integrated into the University of Southampton's existing, EPSRCfunded public engagement activities (POLYMAT - EP/N002199/1), which includes Café Scientifique-type events school visits, supporting web-based materials and bespoke CPD events, to demonstrate the societal benefits that flow from research.
ENVIRONMENTAL: The NanocompEIM 2 project will support increased HVDC interconnection of national power networks together with the integration of offshore wind, which will increase power system efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions. Mott MacDonald has estimated that the unavailability of offshore wind generation is ~4%. By increasing reliability, our developments seek to reduce this by ~15%, consequently reducing reliance on non-renewable generation; offshore equipment failures can introduce outages >6 months, impacting both emissions and energy costs. Also, improved system reliability avoids multi-£bn investment in new fossil fuel back-up generation. The CMS process uses low-environment threat, recyclable solvents. The nanomaterials are in liquid phase at all times avoiding both environmental release & worker exposure. The project will analyse the economic and carbon benefits in a value chain analysis, using specialist tools at GnoSys and Alstom.