The Impact of Sustainable Communities on the Low Voltage Distribution Network

Project Approach

 

 

This project gave emphasis to the impact on the wires due to progressive levels of electrification of communities, which was considered as a future potential. The likelihood of this event was identified by the effects of the replacement of gas heating with heat pumps, direct electric heating with space and water, and progressive deployment levels of electric vehicles, which needed to be charged in the home environment.


As we moved towards an all-electric future, there would be an impact on the power carrying capacity of the wires, and therefore we quantified this impact by using an index called ADMD, and is used by the industry to size the wires. The standard values that the industry uses are from the past and typically use a large safety margin, which means that they are overrated. Scenario based ADMDs were calculated and compared with published data. This was of paramount importance to the project. In order to carry out this analysis a decision support tool was created and is explained further in the WRISC section.


1. The first step was to establish scenarios to start with the “now” and look towards the “future” scenarios” . In order to achieve this a table of scenarios was produced and can be reviewed further here.


2. The second step was to establish load profiles for the “now” & “future” scenarios. Details of how these calculations were carried out can be reviewed in the housing load profile and electric vehicle load pages.


3. The third step was to carry out the ADMD assessment and thereby quantify the impact on the low voltage distribution network. In consequence, a calculation tool called WRISC (Wire Resilience Impact Scenario Calculator) was developed.


4. To conclude, from these results, the environmental and economic impacts were assessed to provide a cost-benefit analysis of the event of replacing all substations in the UK and the corresponding environmental implications.