With GB Energy expected to connect more renewable energy generators to the grid, this issue could be exacerbated.
Pete Armstrong, CEO and Co-founder of Oxford University spin out Mixergy, considers here, the implications of GB Energy, the need for a range of storage solutions to both alleviate grid pressure and enable greater use of renewable generated energy, and how industry partnerships can accelerate the roll out of solutions to consumers to make the UK’s energy system more resilient.
Following their election win, Labour has begun to mobilise behind their vision to ‘Make Britain a Clean Energy Superpower’. This sets out core objectives around quadrupling offshore wind, tripling the installed capacity of solar PV and pushing ahead with new nuclear deployment. Recent research has demonstrated that by supplementing variable renewable energy sources with some baseload nuclear energy power, we can drastically reduce the amount of long term hydrogen storage required to keep our energy system running; another plank of Labour’s strategy. Make no mistake, this is a mammoth challenge but the rewards are considerable. From delivering greater energy security to reducing electricity bills as we become decoupled from international gas prices. There is however a challenge.
Our power grid can’t handle the amount of power being generated today, let alone by 2030. Our ageing infrastructure is outdated, and the costs to improve it so it can handle the increasing loads needed for us to move away from gas are astronomical. Labour themselves point this out by pointing to the stark reality that we will need to build four times the amount of grid infrastructure in the next seven years compared to everything deployed in the last three decades!
Another consequence of mass deployment of renewables is that when more energy is being generated than the grid can handle, the National Grid pays what are known as curtailment payments to switch the wind farms off. These curtailment payments to the generators are being passed to consumers through their energy bills. From January to October 2023 alone, Carbon Tracker estimated that National Grid paid £590m to switch wind farms off, costing householders an average of £40 a year. This figure is expected to rise to at least £150 by 2030 as more renewable capacity takes hold.
So – what’s the answer?
Flexible grid-connected technologies such as home batteries and EV chargers are an ideal solution. These systems help to balance the grid through control strategies which avoid using energy during peak times whilst storing energy when it’s abundant. They have the potential to save consumers money, whilst reducing the amount of new infrastructure, cables and energy storage systems that might otherwise need to be installed.
A new report from LCP Delta, commissioned by the Hot Water Association, has calculated that hot water cylinders and associated storage devices could shift 23GWh of energy demand to off-peak electricity times.
This is the objective behind Mixergy smart hot water cylinders. Conventional hot water cylinders heat all or nothing, irrespective of how much energy is needed and, at the same time, there is no accurate knowledge of their state of charge. Mixergy cylinders, on the other hand, accurately measure their energy content at all times whilst only heating what the household requires. Combined with Mixergy’s software, this makes the cylinder less like a ‘big dumb kettle’ and more like a smart battery which works with National Grid by storing excess energy when renewable power is plentiful whilst reducing bills in the process. By only heating what the household needs, there’s more room in the cylinder for wind and solar farms to come online at any time throughout the day.
British Gas offer
In fact, we recently announced an industry-first energy offer with British Gas to mobilise the millions of homeowners with hot water cylinders to help the grid whilst saving on their energy bills. Households that have a Mixergy smart hot water cylinder will be rewarded with £40 a year when they sign up for a British Gas energy tariff. This is the first time a utility has offered to reward homes for choosing a grid-connected hot water cylinder that can store surplus energy generated by renewables, rather than paying wind farms to switch off. Mixergy eXtra will be available from the autumn to Mixergy smart hot water cylinder owners. The system works with all cylinder types, whether operating with a gas boiler, heat pump, solar PV or direct electric. In every case, surplus grid energy can be used to reduce bills. The system works across a wide range of alternative tariffs on the market (from Economy 7/10 all the way through to Octopus Agile), always with the objective of delivering the best interaction between the home and grid to save energy and reduce costs without compromising comfort.
We originally conceived the idea of a smart hot water cylinder back in 2014. The amount of surplus energy has grown vastly since then and the grid will need flexible demand to accommodate the huge surpluses of renewable generation that are being planned. As electrification starts to replace gas boilers, hot water storage is going to be crucial to delivering affordable hot water for showers and baths because heat pumps and/or direct electric heating can’t provide instant hot water like combi gas boilers can.
The scale of the opportunity is massive. An estimated 10 times the capacity of our entire pumped hydro fleet is distributed across our cylinders across the UK. If all these cylinders could work with the grid, a huge amount of renewable energy could be used, removing the need for curtailment payments and saving billions of pounds per annum by the mid-2030s.
Mixergy is the first smart and grid-connected hot water cylinder that does this efficiently and conveniently. Its patented and unique approach offers unprecedented hot water control with any heat source (heat pumps, solar PV, etc.). It can provide all the hot water the home needs, even when its cylinder is not heating during peak times. This makes it an attractive product for the home, as it saves money and hot water energy consumption, while being simple to use.
Image credit: UK Government stock image
