Energy systems
The Potential for District Cooling in Urban Areas in Brazil
Student: Jaffer Al Bahrani
Given the surge in global cooling demands and the drawbacks associated with the existing cooling system, it is necessary to examine more sustainable methods to meet this demand. District cooling systems offer an efficient solution to satisfy the cooling requirements of regions with high urban densities. The objective of this project is to examine the economic potential for the implementation of such urban systems in different city archetypes in Brazil through formulating a single-zone multi-period optimisation model. The model will look at network infrastructure trade-off versus a range of end-use technologies to find the optimum technological mix to meet the city's cooling demands.
Supervisors:
- Dr Francisca Jalil-Vega, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Ivan Garcia-Kerdan, Department of Chemical Engineering
Distributed energy-based retrofit design and operation of intermittently loaded urban energy system
Student: Maurizio Raimondo Cremi
The gradual penetration of distributed energy resources in urban energy systems is expected to tackle major environmental and organisational challenges faced by urban policymakers and leaders in cities around the world. Nonetheless, they require the support of modern analytical tools for their decision-making. This project aims to apply elements from influential conceptual modelling frameworks to devise an optimisation-based energy retrofit of the "Fiera del Levante" exhibition centre in Bari, Italy. The peculiarity of this case study stems from the fact that its highly intermittent energy demand and low utilisation rate throughout the year hinders the proposal of a successful business case.
Supervisors:
- Dr Koen van Dam, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Marco Antonio Pantaleo, Department of Chemical Engineering
Energy System Transition : The Implementation of Energy as a Service Solution
Student: Thomas Deronzier
Driven by technological progress, decarbonization policies and the increasingly active role of the consumer, the UK energy transition is on its way. These changes in the energy system threaten the historical well-established traditional big utility business model and also create new opportunities. Selling energy services, and not just a commodity - namely kwh, is one of these new value pools. This thesis explores the strategies that could lead to this opportunity being realised; looking specifically at its possible implementation on the Rugeley site, a project led by Engie.
Supervisors:
- Dr Jeffrey Hardy, Grantham Institute
- Dr Christoph Mazur, Engie
The integration of electric vehicles on Reunion Island in the context of energy independence
Student: Paul Lorang
The French overseas territory Reunion Island, not connected to any continental electricity network, aims for energy independence in 2030. Its road transportation sector is fuelled by diesel and gasoline: one possible solution to reduce the consumption of these imported fossil fuels would be to integrate electric vehicles as well as generating power with local resources. The goal of the project is to develop an optimisation model on AIMMS to suggest the best charging strategies for the vehicles to help the integration of renewable energy sources and to have limited impact on the peak demand. Different scenarios of electricity generation mix and electric vehicle penetration are analysed.
Supervisors:
- Dr Koen Van Dam, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Professor Remy Courdier, University of Reunion Island
Added Value of Leveraging Demand Response Asset for Large Consumers by Dynamically Participating in Various Electricity Markets and Ancillary Services
Student: Yibo Pang
The UK electricity market is ever evolving, and emerging services along with business alternatives reshape the market landscape rapidly. Opportunities such as energy arbitrage, ancillary services, and electricity export provide large consumers, who own demand response assets, with opportunities to boost their profit margin. Capturing the hidden benefits and exploiting the generation assets in the sophisticated UK electricity market, the thesis built a MILP model to propose a portfolio strategy for large consumers via analysing the revenue stream of consumers’ assets. Meanwhile, the steady state optimisation revealed the strategy’s potential for the foreseeable future.
Supervisors:
- Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Dr Niccolo Le Brun, Department of Chemical Engineering
UK regional electricity pricing for industry: modelling the uncertainty of future network costs
Student: Lenos Peratitis
The electricity market is facing major uncertainties as a result of Ofgem's effort (TCR + FLASCAR) to restructure the basis by which different users of the Network are charged to create a bill that is fair (cost-reflective) and provide the appropriate value signals for users of the Network across different locations and users.
Supervisors:
- Dr Salvador Acha, Department of Chemical Engineering
A spatiotemporal model of Reunion Island's energy system: meeting energy autonomy by 2030
Student: Maxime Rousseau
Reunion Island's energy system will have to drastically change in the next two decades in order to meet the ambitious goal of being energy independent by 2030. This study proposes a spatiotemporal model of the demand, resources, network and technologies of Reunion Island to anticipate this upcoming change. Results from this analysis could inform future studies on smart grids and could be expanded to other territories.
Supervisors:
- Dr Koen van Dam, Department of Chemical Engineering
- Professor Remy Courdier, University of Reunion Island