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Energy efficiency and resiliency for power supply

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April 2019 to March 2020

Project team

Ian Hamilton

Alex Summerfield

Tadj Oreszczyn

This project looks at the impact of energy efficiency technologies on power demand, peak load and their implications for power system resilience.

Co-benefits of reducing energy demand and improving energy efficiency for system resilience

Resiliency in the power supply and demand system is critically important for our future energy system. The impact energy efficient technologies have on annual energy demand is generally understood and reasonable predictions of fuel savings can be made. However, the potential role that energy efficiency plays for improving resiliency of the grid as large and micro scale renewables are deployed are are less well known and the potential services to the grid provided by improvements in building energy efficiency should be better evaluated in energy planning. Benefits of efficiency include peak power demand reduction, increased load shifting, and reduced transmission infrastructure costs. This project seeks to better understand the temporal impact of efficiency technologies is critical to being able to value and plan a future energy system.

What we are asking

  • How do different energy efficient technologies impact on resilience in power supply-demand system and what is the upstream value of this resilience under a range of future systems?
  • What impact does fabric efficiency and forms of construction have on power demand and what is its role in peak load shifting?
  • How do integrated building energy and service demand user controls affect resiliency of the power network?

Banner photo credit: Chuttersnap on Unsplash