Energy Revolution Research Consortium: EnergyREV

Project overview

EnergyREV is focused on delivering (by 2022) investable and scalable local business models which use integrated approaches to deliver cleaner, cheaper, energy services for more prosperous and resilient communities. The resulting smart local energy systems should also benefit the national energy system as a whole. It also targets a ten times larger future-investment in local integrated energy systems versus business as usual in the 2020s while creating real world proving grounds to accelerate new products and services to full commercialisation. A major element of the activities is building UK leadership in integrated energy provision.

EnergyREV will work with the Energy Systems Catapult to enable and inform demonstrators and demonstrator design projects (funded by the PFER programme) through their lifetime; undertaking analysis and evaluation, building and driving best practice and, leading knowledge exchange through national and international engagement with policy, academic and industrial communities. This will inform future energy investment by companies and Government. It will coordinate and integrate existing UK world-class knowledge, research teams and facilities, and through this provide advice, research and innovation support to help ensure the success of the PFER programme.

Project objectives

• When considering smart local energy systems, the delivery of smart functionality requires complex interactions between data, controls and the physical energy network's devices and systems.
• The Infrastructure Theme will undertake research and activities focused on the integration of local energy systems' technical infrastructure with smart control. State of the art in sensor-based knowledge extraction, Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity and real-time distributed control techniques will be exploited and advanced during the project’s life. 

Impact statement

Energy systems around the world are going through a phase of rapid change. However, the concept of energy transition isn’t new - society has seen many changes associated with energy over time. In the UK, the Industrial Revolution saw a shift from an energy system primarily reliant on traditional biomass and other renewable sources (e.g. wind, water, muscle power) to an industrial system reliant on steam power fuelled by coal. Before the 1950s most energy systems relied on local rather than the global energy networks that are available today.

These transitions have been largely driven by opportunities unlocked by newly available fuels, together with the development of technologies and markets seeking to exploit them. The changes generally built on existing behaviour rather than changing it and took decades to take place.

Smaller scale, decentralised technologies associated with solar, wind, storage, sensors and control systems are developing at a much more rapid pace than larger scale infrastructure. There are also considerable market opportunities associated with the transition, with an estimated 2 trillion dollars a year to be invested globally in the transition to low carbon power, transport, heat and localised, digitally-connected energy systems.

Outputs

• EnergyREV publications 
• Insights and tools 
• Paper: The funding calls needed to advance the implementation of Smart Local Energy Systems