News

TNEI attended Scottish Power’s South West Scotland and Dumfries & Galloway developer forum in June in Glasgow. National Grid was also in attendance to discuss details of the Generation Export Management (GEMS) scheme which is set to be implemented in 2022. Technical specification requirements for this scheme are still being refined and SP currently plan to start the tender process in 2019. Wider balancing market access was also covered, which will be introduced as part of the European Electricity Balancing Guideline (EBGL) to create a pan-European balancing market. This will also open up the balancing market to embedded generation, aggregators and demand side. NGET had a discussion to gather feedback from stakeholders and discuss how it is planned to interact with the GEMS scheme. To find out more about the about the support TNEI can offer, please visit our grid connections page, or call us on 0161 233 4800. This

As part of a complete review of National Grid’s ancillary services arrangements, new product roadmaps have been published throughout 2018 for a number of services, addressing the revised service requirements, auctioning arrangements and compensation that is available. The Reactive Power market is less mature than the response or reserve markets so more details have been included in this specific roadmap. The principles of the reactive power service redesign are addressed by: “¢ Reviewing current products and methods for procuring Reactive Power and working with industry to develop a better, shorter-term market; “¢ Improving the transparency of products and system needs; “¢ Publishing an invitation for Expressions of Interest in the provision of Reactive Power services in South Wales. Reactive power services Reactive power.jpg Reactive Power is used to control voltage levels across the electricity system and is either generated when more is needed or absorbed when less is required to

In October 2018, the integrated single electricity market (I-SEM) is planned to go live in Ireland. The I-SEM represents a complete redesign of the wholesale energy market in Ireland with the intention of bringing Ireland in line with the European Target Model for Electricity set by the EU. The implementation of the I-SEM will facilitate the integration of Ireland with other European electricity markets and its introduction will make more markets available to generators/suppliers, including a revised capacity market and short-term trading markets. This will mean more opportunities for generating revenue, but also higher exposure to costs. There will be a general overhaul of the principles of the market operation from centralised despatch to self-despatch. This ability to self-clear means that a single location can trade, clear and settle physical transactions in the wholesale market. Currently, energy trading starts one day before delivery but the price is settled four days

The roadmap for the Restoration service has been published by National Grid. National Grid procures generators to provide the Black Start service in the unlikely event of an outage on the system. If one of these events occurs, the generators are able to self-start to energise the local transmission network. Currently, Black Start services are mainly provided by large transmission-connected generators that can: “¢ Start-up independently following a shutdown “¢ Provide power to the transmission network “¢ Provide block loading of local demand. The generation mix on the system is changing significantly with an increase in renewable generation and smaller thermal generation connected to the distribution system. A number of existing Black Start providers are large conventional fossil fuel power stations. To be ready to re-energise in the needed timescales, these power stations need to maintain warmth within their assets. In previous years, they would have been generating fairly constantly

Following the release of the updated Integrated Resource Plan 2018, TNEI Africa is enthusiastic about the opportunities it entails for South Africa and our future and existing clients. Unfortunately, the short-term development opportunities do not look too favourable, for example, in the period up to 2030, no new generation would be required up to 2025, although this excludes the 27 signed REIPPPP projects as well as the Eskom build program with the last unit of Kusile PS to come online by 2022. The installed capacity and energy mix for scenarios tested for the period up to 2030 will not differ materially, mainly because of the decommissioning of around12GW of Eskom coal plants during this period. New coal would be added in 2023 and 2024 totalling 1GW from two IPP coal projects. New renewables will only be added in 2025 which includes solar PV, wind and gas/diesel. No new CSP or

Another week, another valuable training session delivered! James Mackay, Head of Technical Services, and Jim Singleton, Principal Technical Consultant recently delivered a noise training session to a leading offshore wind energy developer in Dublin. The training provided an overview of key noise considerations associated with the planning, development and operation of onshore substations and electrical infrastructure for offshore wind farms. Recent experience has shown that noise associated with substations can often be overlooked during the design process and this can result in the need for delays and increased costs later on in the project. Jim presented a number of case studies, lessons learned and key recommendations designed to help minimise noise related risk throughout the project lifecycle. Our noise team works closely with our large and experienced power systems team and our planning and consenting team to consider noise impacts associated with a range of electrical infrastructure projects; our range