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  • About
    • Our Team
    • Partners
    • Join us
    • Vacancies
    • News
    • Events
    • SDCE stories
  • Energy Advice
    • Free home energy advice
    • Request Support
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    • Community Housing
    • A community land trust?
    • What's going on ...
    • Past projects >
      • Solar Roof Feasibility Project
      • energylab
      • Poster competition
      • Summer Roadshow!
    • Ivybridge Futures
  • Climate Action
    • Net Zero Heroes HQ >
      • The story so far
      • The challenge
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microgrid, V2g, Batteries

Picture
IMPORTANT: All the systems described here will be analysed in a detailed technical feasibility survey funded by the Rural Community Energy Fund.

A micro-grid is just what you'd think it is: a tiny electricity network that connects everything on site that uses electricity with everything on site that generates electricity. 

Usually a new house would be connected to the National Grid with an electricity meter and the householder would choose which supplier they wanted to buy their electricity from. On our site we intend to build a micro-grid, which means that instead of all the houses being connected to the National Grid, there will only be one site-wide connection. Within the site the electricity flows will all be managed by the micro-grid to ensure tenants always have a low-cost supply of clean electricity.

This means that the tenants will pay a new Energy Supply Company (ESCo) for their electricity, not a national supplier. SDCE will guarantee that the electricity can be provided at, or below, market rates to ensure very low running costs for all tenants.

Another benefit of the micro-grid is that because it will cleverly manage the flow of electricity and we will also have batteries and the electric cars in which to store spare electricity, we can reduce the electricity that the new homes require from the National Grid, therefore reducing pressure on our already constrained network and reducing the need for more fossil fuel back up generators, like the one that was proposed elsewhere near Ivybridge early in 2020.

Possible on site batteries
Battery storage would  help to balance the electricity demand and supply on site. It could also be used to provide ‘flexibility services’ to the grid, by taking plentiful electricity at night-time and discharging it back in the day when demand is higher. Having a battery on site enables us to explore other services we can offer to Western Power Distribution which will help us to make the project more financially viable. We are undertaking detailed technical feasibility studies to investigate this.

However as the UK decarbonises transport and we switch to owning electric cars, we think we should be able to use the batteries from the cars to provide flexible storage on our microgrid. At the moment very few electric cars have batteries which are suitable to discharge back  into the grid. There are a few trials taking place in the UK, but nowhere yet has this been used commercially. We think it could be a highly efficient use of the vehicles and avoid the need to provide other electricity storage options. In the UK the average car is only in use 5% of the time, so it is parked for 95% of the time, leaving plenty of time for the battery to be used as required by the microgrid. Watch this space, we'll be undertaking some detailed modelling on this and looking for more funding to develop this innovative idea.

Next...

Why
The concept
The need
​Project timeline
Current site
Surveys
Access and drainage
Proposed site layout
What will they look like?
Passivhaus
Microgrid
Solar PV
Renewable heating
Electric vehicles (EVs)
Nature
Communal areas
Who can live here
How will we finance the project
Community consultation

Registered under  the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 as a Community Benefit Society.  

Registration number 7353. VAT number 248 8969 32

​Registered address: South Dartmoor Community Energy, 2 Highfield Terrace, Bittaford, Ivybridge, PL21 0EW

info@sdce.org.uk       freephone 0800 112 3044

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