Aims & Objectives
The aim of this project was to assess the impact of future sustainable communities on the low voltage (LV) distribution network using the industry standard index called After Diversity Maximum Demand (ADMD). Figures 1 and 2 illustrate a substation and LV cables.
This project was a scenario-based project that evaluated the impact of progressive levels of energy usage on the current capacity of the low voltage distribution cables and was based on the following objectives:
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To create a set of future load profiles that represents various technologies of increasing electricity usage. These technologies included heat pumps, direct electric heating and electric vehicles.
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To establish various housing estate scenarios with different combinations of load profiles to obtain the predicted ADMD figures at the substation level.
Figure 1: Typical substation Figure 2: LV cabling
Deliverables
The deliverables that the group aimed to achieve are listed below as follows:
- A flexible Decision Support Tool to assess the combination of different technologies, scale of the estate, as well as the level of deployment of each technology, which is publicly available for download.
- Predicted ADMD results comparison with industry standard guidelines.
- Assessment of the economic and environmental impacts that utility companies would be facing within the UK, based on future scenario predictions.