News

On the 12thDecember 2019 the Irish Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government (DHPLG) released a proposed update to the Wind Energy Development Guidelines (WEDG). The draft update was produced with input from Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment (DCCAE) and is subject to a 10-week consultation period. The publication of the draft follows a review of the original WEDG which were published in 2006. Amazingly, the process of producing the update started all the way back in 2013. The fact that the review has taken so long is testament to the complex technical, political and environmental considerations which the Government departments have been seeking to consider and balance. The guidelines cover a range of topics including Noise; Visual Amenity Setback; Shadow Flicker; Consultation Obligations; Community Dividends; and Grid Connections. In relation to noise, the draft guidance makes some significant changes to the approach set out in 2006.

The fifth revision of ENA Engineering Recommendation G5, EREC G5/5 “Harmonic voltage distortion and the connection of harmonic sources and/or resonant plant to transmission systems and distribution networks in the United Kingdom”, came into implementation on 17th June 2020. The updated revision has been published following a long review process which started in 2010 to address the key issues of: G5 5 figure 1.png Figure 1: Impedance loci at a network node for group of harmonic orders 29 to 36 inclusive, showing individual impedance points. g5 5 figure 2.JPG Figure 2: Heat map of voltage distortion results for two individual harmonic orders across impedance loci (result colour coded by percentage of allocated limit). G5 5 figure 3.png Figure 3: Example of impedance profiles at a network node during a range of different network operating conditions. What has changed in the new G5 revision? While the new revision of G5 constitutes

The recentContracts for Differenceauction has strengthened the push towards offshore wind becoming a major player in the UK energy market. Contracts for Difference were first awarded in 2015 and since then two additional auctions have taken place. The framework involves a private contract between developers and the Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC), developers receive a fixed fee for the electricity in which they generate for a 15-year period. If there is a difference in the strike price and the wholesale power price, the Government then tops up the cost thus ensuring the developer is not left financially out of pocket. The September announcement saw 12 renewable projects being awarded contracts through the CfD framework with 6 of the projects being offshore wind farms, double the amount awarded back in 2017. The offshore wind farms have a combined capacity of 5.5GW, representing 95% of the capacity which received the contracts for

The UK Government (Business Energy and Industrial Strategy ““ BEIS) are currently carrying out consultation on the treatment of electricity storage schemes within the planning system. This follows a previous consultation that took place in January 2019. The consultationcloses on 10 December and includes the draft legislation required to implement BEIS’s proposals (making amendments to the Planning Act 2008 and the Electricity Act 1989). BEIS anticipate the statutory instruments will be enacted around six months after the consultation closes (i.e. summer 2020). Currently, in England electricity storage schemes over 50MW capacity are determined by the UK Government under the NSIP regime. In Wales, the Welsh Government has already carved out storage from their Developments of National Significance regime meaning that all storage schemes (regardless of size) are determined under the Town and Country Planning Act (TCPA). The new proposals to remove the threshold would mean that all electricity storage projects

NGESO is continuing to review the efficacy of the balancing services currently procured to meet system demand and maintain security of supply. As such, a number of services have recently been trialled and rolled out to the Request For Information (RFI) stage or Expression Of Interest (EOI) stage. NGESO want to widen market access for balancing services providers and ensure all eligible technologies are competing on a level playing field. This is especially pertinent for renewable generators such as wind farms, for example, that have historically been unable to tender for services such as frequency response due to the production forecast limitations and commercial disincentives. Bringing service provision closer to real-time enables more precise procurement and delivery as the system need becomes more exact and apparent, as well as allowing more generators to compete in the auctions, thereby hopefully decreasing the cost. Fewer services may be required to meet the

National Grid SystemOperator (NGSO) has recently published itsWinter Outlook for 2019/2020.The document focuses on the expected trends and predicted outputs the GB electricity market is likely to experience during the winter months. The most significant topic within the Winter Outlook is the upcoming Triad season. The Triad season lasts between November and February and impacts demand customers with half ““ hourly metered data. Triads are the 3, non-consecutive half-hour settlement periods, occurring at least 10 days apart for which system demand on the GB transmission network is at its highest. The aim of the Triads scheme is to encourage customers with large demand requirements to reduce their usage of the transmission system during peak times. Triad avoidance has increased within recent years which has involved demand customers switching to distributed generation and onsite generation as well as reducing their energy consumption in order to avoid large TNUoS charges. One of