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Financial engineering and optimisation provide both power companies and consumers with better decision support in deregulated energy sectors. UCL research has delivered the following benefits to decision makers: (i) a clearer understanding of the role of statistical analysis in imputing missing data on wind speeds and (ii) reduction in energy costs by optimised scheduling of energy technologies. Other benefits have been (i) investment in follow-up research projects by industrial companies and (ii) knowledge transfer via workshops.
This case study describes the national and international impact of research undertaken by Professor Chao, as part of an EU funded Framework 7 project, Digital Environment Home Energy Management Systems (DEHEMS). The project has improved existing household energy monitoring, tackling the issues of global warming and CO2 emission reduction in the domestic sector. The research has directly contributed to the development of a product called EnergyHive, subsequently marketed by Small to Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Hildebrand Ltd, who was the industrial partner in the DEHEMS consortium. The research has delivered the following:
Beneficiaries of the research and the subsequent impact include: a commercial business, domestic energy consumers, UK and international energy companies and local authorities.
The University of Southampton's pioneering research into energy harvesting has produced proven economic impacts together with impacts on public policy and international standards. Perpetuum, a spin-out from Southampton employing 10 people locally, has attracted £9.6 million in venture capital and developed the world's leading vibration energy harvester. Perpetuum's harvesters are enabling the deployment of zero maintenance, battery-free wireless systems in the rail industry where the technology has revolutionised bearing monitoring. This has enabled, for the first time, real-time monitoring of rolling stock, leading to cost savings, improved reliability, efficiency and safety. Their systems have been deployed on 200 trains across the UK (Southeastern) and Sweden (SJ AB). Southampton's research has driven wider industrial uptake of the technology and Perpetuum's is also the only energy harvester approved for use with the worlds leading suppliers of wireless condition monitoring equipment (GE Bentley Nevada, National Instruments and Emerson). Promotion of the technology has led to a £1.25 million TSB competition on energy harvesting and Southampton researchers are assisting in the development of international standards and increasing public awareness of the technology.
The work described here has impacted on European policy and standards concerning energy efficiency in Building Services.
The impact arises from two Welsh School of Architecture led and European Commission funded projects, HARMONAC (focussed on inspection of air-conditioning systems) and iSERV (focussed on automatic system monitoring and feedback). These pan-European projects demonstrate achieved energy savings of up to 33% of total building electricity use in individual buildings, and potential savings up to €60Bn. These projects demonstrably impacted the recast European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the revision of EU Standards (European Committee for Standardisation (CEN)).
A development of six Creative Energy Homes (CEH) on the University of Nottingham campus provides a living test-site for leading firms, including E.ON, David Wilson Homes, BASF, Tarmac, Roger Bullivant and Igloo Blueprint to work with the University of Nottingham to investigate the integration of energy efficient technologies into houses. As a result of this work, Lovell homes has won a number of sustainable housing contracts, Roger Bullivant have developed and installed 30 SystemFirst™ foundation systems and Igloo Blueprint have built £7M worth of new homes. The research findings have informed the UK Government's "Green Deal" strategy, the Nottingham Community Climate Change Strategy and received widespread acclaim through a number of public engagement activities reaching out to over 5 million people.
Dr David Toke's research at the University of Birmingham has contributed to policy made by governments in the UK and EU, and the work and policy of environmentally concerned NGOs. Renewable Energy is a crucial aspect of EU and UK sustainable energy strategies and feed-in tariffs have now become the preferred method of incentivising renewable energy in the UK. Toke made a major contribution to generating this change through his proactive dissemination of research on feed-in tariffs and the publication of a key public policy report, at a time when little was known about this type of policy instrument.
His research has stimulated debate among industry professionals and events organised by him have provided a forum where the industry and NGOs can develop an evidence-based dialogue. Through using popular media to disseminate his research findings, Toke has provided a source for greater public understanding of the related issues, and in particular has challenged the decisions of government. In a broader sense, his research has contributed to improving governmental and financial support for renewable energies in the UK and thus environmental sustainability.
Research carried out at the University of Greenwich has explored issues surrounding sustainable living and climate change mitigation in existing buildings. The research identified the relationships between people and the built environment and developed a series of behavioural interventions to inform building users of the energy they were consuming and provide guidance on how this could be reduced. The socio-technical relationships were used in a public engagement programme to promote debate amongst the over-65s and the interventions by Registered Social Landlords to support behaviour change and reduce energy consumption in domestic buildings. The outputs have also been used to inform Social Housing policy development.
Professor Gupta, an internationally recognised expert on architecture and climate change, has developed an innovative software model for carbon counting (DECoRuM® model) and climate change adaptation (DECoRuM® adapt) of existing housing. The combination of Geographic Information System techniques, energy efficiency and climate change adaptation measures has enabled DECoRuM® model to provide a range of environmental, public policy and practice benefits to homeowners, communities, local authorities and architects. These benefits have been realised through refined global common carbon metrics promoted by UNEP, BSI standard and industry guidance, as well as achievement of real energy and CO2 emission reductions from low carbon refurbishment, leading to improved building energy performance.
The impact is in the ERPE design of protocols which are subsequently used for evaluation and comparison of the performance of tidal energy converter designs. Researchers within the UK Centre for Marine Energy Research (UKCMER) at ERPE have led much of the fundamental and applied research that has supported the commercialisation of tidal energy technologies through the establishment of new international test standards and protocols.
ERPE researchers have regularly provided evidence which has influenced policy change in marine energy development in the UK and internationally with many ERPE graduating PhD's, subsequently employed in the marine energy sector.
The family of MARKAL-TIMES energy models have successively underpinned every major recent UK government energy policy document on long-term decarbonisation pathways. Enabled by the interdisciplinary critical mass of the UCL Energy Institute, a ground-breaking research programme by Strachan, Ekins et al has taken the UK's energy systems analytical capacity from near zero to world-class. Specific examples of policy impacts include assessment of decarbonisation costs in the DECC Carbon Plan, and the quantification of electricity sector decarbonisation as an essential enabling step to meet the targets set by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) in the legally adopted UK carbon budget periods.