Electrical Review - 150th Anniversary Edition

Introduction

Electricity has transformed human civilisation to the point that we could not imagine our lives without it, and yet, 150 years ago when Electrical Review was first published, electrical power was a promise for the future, rather than a present-day reality.

At that time, people could barely imagine electric light bulbs transforming the way we light our houses, businesses and streets, and yet now we use electricity for heating, transport, cooking and every task in between. The pace of innovation continues at speed, with electrical power likely to bring many more benefits long into the future.

Change is one of the greatest constants of humanity; after all, human civilisation has progressed astronomically in those 150 years. But one thing that has not changed is that Electrical Review has been there every step of the way to delve into how electrical power has transformed our lives. And while the magazine has changed throughout the years, the words that began that very first issue still form a key part of our mission.

“We need not dwell upon the importance of the applications of Electricity. It would be better to review the position that the chief branch—Telegraphy, a science itself—occupies in relation to the Public.”

While telegraphy is no longer a key part of what we cover at Electrical Review, our mission is still to ascertain how the electrical industry continues to change lives, even if it has become an ordinary part of day-to-day life.

That’s why we’ve put together the 150th Anniversary Edition, to highlight that mission statement and the work that we’ve done throughout the years to celebrate the electrical industry. But this is also an opportunity to celebrate our readers and contributors, as without them, the world could not be what it is today.

Throughout the years our readers and contributors have showcased their talents by developing new technologies, new standards and new practices that have quite literally changed the world. So, thank you.

Whether you have been reading for 50 years or this is your very first issue, the electrical industry has a bright future ahead thanks to all of you and we’ll continue to champion that future for many years ahead.

EDITOR

Jordan O’Brien

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Kayleigh Hutchins

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2nd

Your guide to the 150th Anniversary Edition

This 150th Anniversary Edition is a love letter to the last 150 years of Electrical Review. It highlights the ever-changing nature of the electrical industry, while showcasing Electrical Review’s role in reporting on it.

However, this isn’t just an opportunity to be nostalgic about the past, but also a continuation of Electrical Review’s role at looking to the future – as it’s clear that there’s an extremely bright future ahead for the industry.

Unlike other issues of Electrical Review, you can expect to see something completely different, as we highlight the past, the present and the future.

In this issue, the Past will showcase some of the technologies that have changed our lives during Electrical Review’s 150 year history. This includes everything from telegraphy to nuclear power, while also giving us an opportunity to showcase old articles from notable contributors –including none other than Nikola Tesla.

The smallest section of the issue will look at the Present, which gives us an opportunity to highlight some of the biggest news currently occurring within the electrical industry, while also giving our Gossage Gossip columnist an opportunity to showcase their latest words of wisdom.

Finally, this issue will finish with a look to the future – arguably the most important section. That’s because while we can be nostalgic about the past, Electrical Review will always have one eye on the future and the technologies that will unlock it.

As part of looking to the future, we’ve highlighted some key technologies that are in early development but are likely to transform the world. To showcase those technologies, we’ve asked some of the brightest minds from across the industry for their insights into the challenges involved with developing new technologies and how exactly they will transform humanity.

You can find out where to locate everything in the 150th Anniversary Edition in the Contents on the next page.

PRESENT

66 News

It’s been quite a year for the electrical industry and the UK as a whole — so let’s reminisce with the Top 10 news stories from the Electrical Review website in 2022.

72 Gossage Gossip

Our columnist returns with some of the latest industry gossip.

74 Products

The latest products that are on our radar.

Future Tech

78 Collaboration

To meet the looming challenges ahead, the industry needs to come together and collaborate, something Morten Weirod, President of ABB Electrification, is a big proponent of.

82 Electric Drive Systems

With the ban on fossil fuel cars just around the corner, electric vehicles continue to evolve, as Martin Boughtwood of DG Innovate discusses.

86 Floating Wind

Sam Strivens, the Carbon Trust’s Floating Wind Senior Manager, highlights the important role floating wind will have on the decarbonisation of the electricity sector.

90 Hydrogen Fuel Cells

It may not be the fuel of choice for cars, but hydrogen could have a massive impact on helping data centres decarbonise, as Roberto Castaldini from Vertiv explains.

94 Internet of Things

Damian Lewis, Market Development Manager, Enterprise at Inmarsat, describes why satellite-enabled IoT devices could have a large impact on the electrical industry.

98 Pumped Hydro

The world is flipping the concept of a hydroelectric dam on its head, with pumped hydro energy storage. Find out how Sunshine Hydro puts the technology into practice.

102 Smart Distribution

How are DNOs keeping pace with decarbonisation efforts? Paul Jewell and Jonathan Berry from National Grid Electricity Distribution have the answers.

106 Smart Grid

An autonomous grid is in our future thanks to the growing challenge of balancing unpredictable demand with variable supply, as Gavin Doyle from Cambridge Consultants explains.

110 Vehicle to Grid

Could V2G technology actually help manage a grid reliant on renewables? The experts from Charles River Associates (CRA) weigh in.

PastWhile former President Thomas Jefferson noted that he preferred the “dreams of the future better than the history of the past,” it’s important to know one’s history to ensure that we keep moving forward.

History has a lot to teach us – it’s a guide to the future, ensuring we learn from our mistakes and allowing us to ensure that the generations that come next benefit from the hard work that we’ve put in.

Without knowing our history, it’s possible that the rate of innovation would significantly slow – after all, many of the world’s greatest discoveries have often come off the back of something else.

That’s why while the future may be exciting, it’s important to keep one eye on the past and where we came from. For 150 years, Electrical Review has been at the forefront of the electrical industry, reporting on its highs and its lows. To celebrate this milestone anniversary, it’s time that we honour that history.

In this section, we will highlight some of the top technologies that have shaped the world that we currently live in, as well as report on Electrical Review’s role within the industry over the last 150 years.

From the beginning of Electrical Review and electrical engineering in 1872 to where we are today. Join us on this journey as we break down this very special history.

1872 Telegraphy

Communication has been key to the development of humanity since its very beginning. From early humans who leveraged cave drawings to get their message across, to the invention of the modern alphabet by the Phoenicians, human civilisation has been pushed forward through advancements in our ability to communicate.

While each advancement in communication had a major impact on the development of society, none had as large of an impact as the electrical telegraph. This was a technology that enabled communication across continents and oceans almost instantly, heralding a new era of globalisation.

However, the electrical telegraph did not only transform the way in which we communicated, but it also ushered in a new science that would change the world – electrical engineering.

HOW THE ELECTRICAL TELEGRAPH WORKS

The electrical telegraph was a simple concept – you could send messages over long distances by making and breaking an electrical connection, as long as you encoded that message in a way that could be decoded on the other end.

Of course, the code most commonly associated with electrical telegraphy is Morse code. You could make an electrical connection and quickly break it, making a dot, or make an electrical connection, leave it and then break it, making a dash. At the other end, those dots and dashes could then be converted into the alphabet, allowing the receiver to decode a message.

It was a revolutionary concept, although it required skilled operators on either side of the telegraph to ensure they could encode and decode the right message. An inexperienced operator could easily send or receive the incorrect message, which could have disastrous consequences.

Thankfully, innovations would make sending and receiving messages on the electrical telegraph easier than ever – but in order to share ideas and create these innovations, the industry needed a public platform. One they would soon receive.

THE TELEGRAPHIC JOURNAL

In November 1872, The Telegraphic Journal would be published for the first time. In that very first issue, it detailed its surprise at the absence of a journal considering both the scientific and commercial aspects of telegraphy within the United Kingdom.

This surprise was not completely unfounded. In the nineteenth century, the United Kingdom had created the world’s first commercial telegraph company, with the country continuing to be dominant in the world of telegraphy well into the twentieth century. In fact, by the 1872 launch of The Telegraphic Journal, there would be electrical telegraph cables to almost all corners of the globe, including India, the United States, and even Australia.

And yet, while those in the United Kingdom would be regarded as the foremost experts in the manufacture of telegraphic lines and cables for the world – the global standard – the industry had no journal within the UK that would detail its development. Instead, many looked to foreign journals, which had to be translated to English.

Of course, with the creation of The Telegraphic Journal, the industry would finally find its voice within its home country. Eminent electricians and scientists would have a local platform in which to push the industry forward, as well as identify commercial opportunities.

TRANSFORMING THE INDUSTRY

While the industry within the United Kingdom was on an upward trajectory before the launch of The Telegraphic Journal, this new publication gave it a platform to share ideas and to push innovation to new heights. In fact, by 1896, there were 30 ships lying telegraphic cables across the globe, with 24 of them were owned by British companies

But it wasn’t just about laying new cables, as the industry also needed to make using the electrical telegraph more intuitive. While experienced operators were able to encode and decode Morse code at speed, those with less experience had limits on how quickly they could send or receive messages.

Innovations would improve the speed in which these messages were sent. Charles Wheatstone’s ABC system in 1840 was the first system that did not require skilled technicians to operate. Instead it relied on the alphabet arranged in a clock-face style, with a needle receiving the signal and rotating to the letter that was being sent. This system meant that the receiving operator need only write down each letter, rather than trying to decode the message that was being sent.

Charles Wheatstone’s ABC system meant that telegraphers could now receive as much as 15 words per minute, which while still slow by modern day standards, was much faster and simpler to use than what had come before.

The printing telegraph would be the next major development, as it allowed operators to simply type the message that they wanted to send using a 26 key keyboard. While this made it easier for the sending operator, the receiving end would be the biggest beneficiary as they had a fully automated recording process – meaning the receiving operator needn’t decode the message in realtime. This was the biggest problem associated with Wheatstone’s ABC system, and led to David Edward Hughes’ printing telegraph becoming the accepted standard around the world.

However, while the technology was advancing at pace; telegraphy was about to be transformed by a simple change that would resonate for generations to come.

THE BAUDOT CODE

While the technology behind the electrical telegraph was significant, it was made possible thanks to the invention of the Morse code. However, Morse code would later be replaced by the Baudot code.

The Morse code relied on dots and dashes for each letter, with the letter e, for instance, represented by using one simple dot. However, the Baudot code changed this by using binary – each letter would be represented by a series of five bits. The benefit of Baudot’s code was that it was a fixed length, whereas Morse was variable.

Baudot developed a machine for sending his code using a keyboard with five keys, with the operator simply pressing down the keys that would create the corresponding letter. Once the keys had been pressed, they were locked down until mechanical contacts in a distributor unit passed over the sector connected to that particular keyboard, at which time the keyboard was unlocked ready for the next character to be entered.

Using this method, operators could easily send messages, which included punctuation, numbers or letters. These were just encoded in a binary language, which would then need decoding.

12 Electrical Review | 150th Edition

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the following message from:

HOW TELEGRAPHY IS STILL WITH US TODAY

So, we’ve established that telegraphy transformed human civilisation by enabling near-instant communication across the globe, and that its impact can still be felt through the code we use to communicate on modern day devices. But its impact is much greater than that.

In the introduction to this issue of Electrical Review, I noted how electricity is something that we couldn’t imagine our lives without, but before the electrical telegraph, few knew of its potential. In fact, it was English scientist Francis Ronalds, the inventor of the first working electric telegraph over a substantial distance, who noted that the world could be transformed by electricity. How right he was.

Telegraphy created the industry of electrical engineering, and the technology would spur the development of other uses for electricity. The Telegraphic Journal was first published in 1872, but it wasn’t until 1882 that we would see Edison’s first large-scale electric power network that provided 110 volts, or 1888 until we’d see the radio, or even the television in 1931.

It’s hard to understate the role telegraphy has had on the development of electricity and how even in 1872, the very first contributors to The Telegraphic Journal had no idea what would come of the future of this simple invention.

ASCII, which is the code that most current-day devices use for text, is a descendant of Baudot.

1878

Microphone

In the 1800s, electrical engineering was just beginning to bear fruits for humanity, with the electrical telegraph having transformed the way in which we communicate. However, the fascination with electricity would only grow, with many who had tinkered in the telegraphic space, also discovering other uses for electricity.

People such as Charles Wheatstone and David Edward Hughes had improved upon the electric telegraph, but their fascination with electricity would lead them to experiment with other uses.

For Wheatstone, he would be fascinated by the fact that sound was propagated by waves or oscillations of the atmosphere. It led him to believe that it was possible to transmit sound signals, music, or speech to long distances by this means. He conducted an experiment of his theory by using two slender rods, which conveyed mechanical vibrations to both ears – which he dubbed the microphone.

The only problem with Wheatstone’s invention is that the sounds would not exactly be accurate to what was being transmitted and would only convey a feeble sound. His experimentation also came before his fascination with electricity, so relied on mechanical means of transmission, rather than the use of electricity.

Thankfully, in 1878, David Edward Hughes would demonstrate an improvement upon Wheatstone’s theory using electricity.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN MICROPHONE

It’s important to note that the invention of the microphone is a controversial one, and this publication documented this controversy in its July 1, 1878 edition. But before we get there, we should detail exactly how the microphone came to be.

In 1861, Johann Philipp Reis successfully designed and built a device to convert sound into electrical signals. These signals were then transmitted through a conductive wire to a similar device that converted them back into sound. If you want to be technical, you could note that the Reis telephone was the first microphone, as it converted mechanical wave energy into electrical energy to produce audio.

However, the Reis telephone was instrumental in helping develop Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone, which would represent the next major step in the development of a device to transmit audio. Bell had seen Reis’ telephone, but had noted its poor sound quality, as the voice transmission lacked clarity. He wanted to improve upon Reis’ design for his own telephone.

Bell was able to improve on the design by using a liquid transformer, also known as a water microphone. Essentially it was a metal clip filled with water and a small amount of sulphuric acid, with the acid key to making the liquid electrically conductive.

The water microphone was more technically advanced than the Reis telephone, as it enabled clear speech at the other end of the line, but there was one key problem identified by Thomas Edison – the use of water and sulphuric acid made the device commercially impractical.

So, like any great inventor, Edison got to work on his own alternative to the water microphone. Coincidentally, Edison wouldn’t be alone in coming up with an alternative, with David Edward Hughes also independently developing his own solution.

THE CARBON MICROPHONE

Both Edison and Hughes would turn to carbon to develop their microphone, which was dubbed the carbon microphone.

The carbon microphone is a variable resistance device that turns sound waves into electrical audio signals. It consists of two metal plates separated by carbon granules. One plate is thicker and stationary, while the other plate is very thin and acts as a diaphragm. Varying sound pressure (sound waves) at the diaphragm causes it to vibrate and exert varying pressure on the carbon granules. This, in turn, causes a changing electrical resistance between the plates.

A steady DC voltage is applied across the plates. The varying resistance between these plates causes modulation in the current that coincides with the diaphragm movement.

It was a genius invention and was much more commercially viable than previous designs, while also having far greater intelligibility. At one point Alexander Graham Bell bought the patent to the design for use within his telephone, which as we all know would go on to change the way we communicate once again.

The carbon microphone was so successful that it would be used by the majority of telephones until the 1980s, when electret microphones began to take over. But while the technology was revolutionary, as previously mentioned, it was beset with controversy.

THE CONTROVERSY SURROUNDING THE CARBON TELEPHONE

Thomas Edison, David Edward Hughes and Emile Berliner all had a stake in the invention of the carbon microphone. Hughes had reportedly been working on his device in England completely independently of Edison and Berliner, who were working collaboratively on the carbon microphone in the United States.

However, things would turn ugly when the two different groups would reveal their technologies to the public, with Edison running a smear campaign against Hughes in the American press, accusing Hughes of stealing his and Berliner’s technology. Naturally, as the preeminent electrical journal of its time within the United Kingdom, Electrical Review leapt to the defence of David Edward Hughes.

The July 1, 1878, edition of The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review read:

“As soon as the details of the microphone of Professor Hughes were published to the world, it was seen by those who were familiar with Edison’s Carbon Telephone, that the two inventions were closely allied; and we are hardly surprised to learn that Mr. Edison has set up acclaim for priority of invention of the microphone.

“Following a practice of his country, one of those admirable institutions we are sometimes called upon to admire, but which we are happy to say is not yet introduced amongst us, he has rushed into the public press and made his complaint there.

“Starting with the assumption that the microphone is essentially identical with the carbon telephone, his case is that Mr. W. H. Preece has committed a breach of confidence, inasmuch as Mr. Edison, at the desire of Mr. Preece has kept the latter au courant with his inventions and experiments, including the carbon telephone, ever since they met in America last year.

“The Washington Star, of April 19, containing an account of his carbon telephone and thermopile, was sent by Mr. Edison to Mr. Preece, together with letters from time to time, and Mr. Edison has concluded that Mr. Preece betrayed his confidence to Professor Hughes, ‘I regard the conduct of Mr. Preece in this matter,’ says Edison in the New York Tribune, of June 8, ‘as not merely a violation of my rights as an inventor, but as a gross infringement of the confidence obtained under the guise of friendship.’

“Telegrams to a similar effect have also been sent by Edison to Sir William Thomson, and to Mr. Preece himself, calling upon him to set the matter right with details. We deplore the hastiness with which these communications have been made public by Mr. Edison, and take slight exception to the language in which they are couched.”

While it’s undeniable that Edison was working on a carbon microphone, Hughes had been entirely independent in his development. As highlighted in that edition of Electrical Review:

“It is no secret that Professor Hughes, after making the first articulating microphone, went on in a truly scientific manner, maturing the subject for three months more, ‘ere he communicated his results to anyone at all.

“The fact that no patent has been taken out, and no gain desired, is an argument in itself against the charge.”

David Edward Hughes himself would write to The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review disputing Edison’s charge, noting that Edison’s claims of completely inventing the technology from the ground-up were complete fabrications. In fact, much of the technology found within the carbon microphone was already widely spoken about within European circles.

He noted, “The use of carbon, as a varying resistance with varying pressure, is not original with Mr. Edison. Mr. Clerac, Electrician of the French Telegraph Department, supplied me with resistance tubes founded upon this principle in 1866, viz., a glass tube containing powdered carbon, the resistance of which was regulated by the varying pressure of a regulating screw pressing on the carbon.”

Ultimately history would prove that David Edward Hughes would be the first to demonstrate a working carbon microphone to the public, opting against filing a patent, noting it to be a ‘gift to the world’. However, Edison would later reap the rewards of the invention.

Emile Berliner would originally have the patent for the carbon microphone, which was later sold to Alexander Graham Bell for $50,000, which would be equivalent to almost $1.5 million today. However, Edison, unhappy with this, would challenge the patent in the US legal system, and in 1892 be awarded the patent by the United States Supreme Court in a controversial decision.

In the end, David Edward Hughes would move on to discovering other technologies, with many regarding him as an early pioneer in developing radio – some nine years before radio would even become a thing.

1879 Lighting

There’s a phrase that many of us are familiar with in today’s vernacular – ‘keeping the lights on’. It denotes the bare minimum effort that someone can put in to ensure that something continues running without great expense. It also showcases that when you cut away all the uses of electricity, arguably the most important for humanity is keeping the lights on.

While many in 2022 are worried about rising energy bills and the potential for blackouts threatening their ability to keep the lights on, when The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review first launched 150 years ago, electric lighting was yet to go mainstream.

In fact, when this publication was first published, it’s likely that the majority of homes and offices throughout the UK were still relying on oil lamps for their source of lighting – with some utilising gas lamps, like the newly-built Palace of Westminster that finished construction in 1876.

However, as electricity was beginning to transform the way we communicate with the electrical telegraph, it was also beginning to be thought of as a method for lighting. In fact, it had already been proved effective as a lighting tool as far back as the year 1800, when Humphry Davy showcased the arc lamp for the first time.

There would be some key problems associated with the arc lamp, however. When Davy showcased his electric lamp at the Royal Society in London, it would reach a brightness of over 10,000 lumens. To put that in perspective, the average light bulb today aims for around 1,600 lumens.

Additionally, while arc lighting would shine bright, it wouldn’t last very long. In fact, early arc lamps would last fewer than 100 hours, while also being messy, expensive, noisy and only capable of being used outdoors. Thus, the world wasn’t yet ready for electric lighting.

This would begin to change as the 1800s ticked by, with Paris becoming one of the first cities in the world to experiment with electric lighting. The problem with the implementation, however, came from cities’ inability to reliably produce enough electricity for these lights. After all, there would be no purpose-built power stations until at least the latter half of the 1800s.

Thankfully, when power stations began to be built, there was a new lighting solution available on the market.

A LIGHT BULB MOMENT

When it comes to having bright ideas, it’s often regarded as a ‘light bulb’ moment. Well, that light bulb moment came for Joseph Swan in 1879, when he would reveal a new type of lighting solution – the incandescent light bulb. This used a carbon filament as opposed to relying on an electrical arc.

Ironically, in the US, Thomas Edison was also looking at creating this kind of technology. Thankfully, unlike the bitter battle Edison had with his fellow inventors when it came to the carbon microphone, Edison would later work with Swan, creating the Edison and Swan Electric Light Company.

Newcastle would become one of the first cities in the world to benefit from this new invention, with Swan demonstrating the technology by lighting up one of the city’s streets in 1879. However, like the arc lighting that came before it, the incandescent light bulb suffered from a serious issue – the filament would only last 40 hours.

The technology would later become more reliable and become a new standard for how people would light their homes and businesses. However, it would also spark the need for one of the most important developments in the proliferation of technology – power stations.

POWERING THE WORLD

Edison knew that if electric lighting was going to take off, people needed to be connected to a source of electricity, as homes and businesses couldn’t be expected to produce all their own power. Not everyone could build a hydro-electric power station on their country estate in Cragside like William, Lord Armstrong, after all.

To meet this need, Edison built the world’s first public power station, which was located in London. It was dubbed the Holborn Viaduct power station, or as it was otherwise known, the Edison Electric Light Station. It officially began running January 12, 1882, burning coal to drive a steam turbine which drove a 27-tonne, 125 horsepower (93 kW) generator, producing direct current electricity at 110 volts.

This station was necessary in London as the city had installed electric street lighting in the form of 968 16-candle incandescent lamps, which lit up the street from Holborn Circus to St Martin’s Le Grand. The installation of the power station was so successful, that the project was later expanded to 3,000 lamps.

However, despite the success, the power station could not be expanded due to it being located on property owned by Queen Victoria. Without expansion, the generator could only produce so much power, and it ended up costing more to run that it was making. While it had proven that the concept of generating power on a large scale was possible, the project would be closed in September 1886 owing to financial difficulties, with the street lights converted back to gas.

But while the Holborn Viaduct power station would fail due to financial issues, it would receive a sister power station across the pond in New York City, dubbed the Pearl Street Station. Pearl Street Station was fired by coal; it began with six dynamos, and it started generating electricity on September 4, 1882, serving an initial load of 400 lamps at 82 customers. However, unlike its London counterpart, Pearl Street had room to grow.

The station was originally powered by custom-made Porter-Allen high-speed steam engines designed to provide 175 horsepower at 700 rpm, slightly more than the Holborn Viaduct, but these proved to be unreliable with their sensitive governors. They were removed and replaced with new engines from Armington & Sims that proved to be much more suitable for Edison’s dynamos.

This enabled Pearl Street to serve 508 customers with 10,164 lamps by 1884, and while the Pearl Street project was not an immediate financial success, it conclusively proved that Edison’s system worked and demonstrated the enormous benefits of comprehensive electrification.

Towns and cities across the world began licensing the technology that Edison had demonstrated at his Holborn Viaduct and Pearl Street power stations, which would lead to proliferation of electricity on a local level. However, to truly go global, George Westinghouse’s approach to using alternating current and a transformer would prove far more successful. However, we’ll discuss that in another article.

LIGHTING THE FUTURE

While Edison had pioneered a new type of electric lighting that would endure until this very day, nearly 150 years later, his technology is unlikely to last much longer. That’s due to the world’s push for efficiency, something that was not on the agenda back in 1879 – especially considering that incandescent bulbs waste 90% of the energy inputted through heat, with just 10% being converted to visible light.

Thankfully Oleg Losev, a Russian scientist, would come up with a solution in 1927. He is often credited as the inventor of the light-emitting diode, also known as LED, although found no practical use for it in the 1920s. It wouldn’t be until 1962 that Nick Holonyak, Jr. would invent the first LED that produced visible, red light while working at General Electric. However, red light was still not a replacement for the incandescent light bulb, requiring more development.

The beginnings of the LED lamps we know today came in 1994, when Shuji Nakamura of Nichia Corporation demonstrated the first high-brightness blue LED. This directly led to the development of ‘white LED’, utilising a phosphor coating to partially convert the emitted blue light to red and green frequencies, creating a light that appears white. A discovery that would eventually lead to a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.

And yet, 1994 was still too early for LEDs to go mainstream, with the first examples of early adopters not happening until after the turn of the millennium. A factory in Wisconsin would convert in 2008, albeit at an initial cost that was three times that of a traditional mix of incandescent and fluorescent lamps.

“

While Edison had pioneered a new type of electric lighting that would endure until this very day, nearly 150 years later, his technology is unlikely to last much longer

However, thanks to the change, the factory estimated that it would make the initial cost back within two years via electricity savings, and the lamps would not need replacing for 20 years. That’s because LED lights are capable of converting 90% of the consumed energy into light, significantly more than incandescent bulbs.

While it’s crazy to think that nearly 150 years have passed and we’re only now beginning to fully phase out Edison and Swan’s invention, it also demonstrates the impact these early technol-

ogies had on humanity. After all, the carbon microphone stuck around until the 1980s, while the world’s last commercial electric telegraph system, India’s state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Ltd, shut down in 2013.

1891

Nikola Tesla

Here you will find an unedited article from Nikola Tesla from the March 6, 1891 edition of The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review.

Electric discharge in vacuum tubes by NIKOLA TESLA

In the Electrical Engineer of June 10th, I have noted the description of some experiments of Prof. J. J. Thomson, on the “Electric Discharge in Vacuum Tubes,” and in your issue of June 24th, Prof. Elihu Thomson describes an experiment of the same kind. The fundamental idea in these experiments is to set up an electromotive force in a vacuum tube – preferably devoid of any electrodes – by means of electro-magnetic induction, and to excite the tube in this manner.

As I view the subject, I should think that to any experimenter who has carefully studied the problem confronting us and who has attempted to find a solution of it, this idea must present itself as naturally, as, for instance, the idea of replacing the tinfoil coatings of a Leyden jar by rarefied gas and exciting luminosity in the condenser thus obtained by repeatedly charging and discharging it.

The idea being obvious, whatever merit there is in this line of investigation must depend upon the completeness of the study of the subject and the correctness of the observations.

The following lines are not penned with any desire on my part to put myself on record as one who has performed similar experiments, but with a desire to assist other experimenters by pointing out certain peculiarities of the phenomena observed, which, to all appearances, have not been noted by Prof. J. J. Thomson, who, however, seems to have gone about systematically in his investigations and who has been the first to make his results known.

These peculiarities noted by me would seem to be at variance with the views of Prof. J. J. Thomson, and present the phenomena in a different light.

My investigations in this line occupied me principally during the winter and spring of the past year. During this time many different experiments were performed, and in my exchanges of ideas on this subject with Mr. Alfred S. Brown, of the Western Union Telegraph Company, various different dispositions were suggested which were carried out by me in practice.

Fig. 1 may serve as an example of one of the many forms of apparatus used. This consisted of a large glass tube sealed at one end and projecting into an ordinary incandescent lamp bulb. The primary, usually consisting of a few turns of thick, well-insulated

copper sheet was inserted within the tube, the inside space of the bulb furnishing the secondary.

This form of apparatus was arrived at after some experimenting and was used principally with the view of enabling me to place a polished reflecting surface in the inside of the tube, and for this purpose the last turn of the primary was covered with a thin silver sheet.

Fig. 1.

In all forms of apparatus used there was no special difficulty in exciting a luminous circle or cylinder in proximity to the primary.

As to the number of turns, I cannot quite understand why Prof. J. J. Thomson should think that a few turns were “quite sufficient,” but lest I should impute to him an opinion he may not have, I will add that I have gained this impression from the reading of the published abstracts of his lecture. Clearly, the number of turns which gives the best result in any case, is dependent on the dimensions of the apparatus, and, were it not for various considerations, one turn would always give the best result.

I have found that it is preferable to use in these experiments an alternate current machine giving a moderate number of alternations per second to excite the induction coil for charging the Leyden jar which discharges through the primary—shown diagrammatically in fig. 2—as in such case, before the disruptive discharge takes place the tube or bulb is slightly excited and the formation of the luminous circle is decidedly facilitated. But I have also used a Wimshurst machine in some experiments.

Fig. 2.

Prof. J. J. Thomson’s view of the phenomena under consideration seems to be that they are wholly due to electromagnetic action. I was, at one time, of the same opinion, but upon carefully investigating the subject I was led to the conviction that they are more of an electrostatic nature. It must be remembered that in these experiments we have to deal with primary currents of an enormous frequency or rate of change and of a high potential, and that the secondary conductor consists of a rarefied gas, and that under such conditions electrostatic effects must play an important part.

In support of my view I will describe a few experiments made by me. To excite luminosity in the tube it is not absolutely necessary that the conductor should be closed. For instance, if an ordinary exhausted tube (preferably of large diameter), be surrounded by a spiral of thick copper wire serving as the primary, a freely luminous spiral may be induced in the tube, roughly shown in fig. 3.

In one of these experiments a curious phenomenon was observed; namely, two intensely luminous circles, each of them close to a turn of the primary spiral, were formed inside of the tube, and I attributed this phenomenon to the existence of nodes on the primary.

The circles were connected by a faint luminous spiral parallel to the primary and in close proximity to it. To produce this effect I have found it necessary to strain the jar to the utmost. The turns of the spiral tend to close and form circles, but this, of course, would be expected, and does not necessarily indicate an electro-magnetic effect; whereas the fact that a glow can be produced along the primary in the form of an open spiral argues for an electrostatic effect.

In using Dr. Lodge’s recoil circuit, the electrostatic action is likewise apparent. The arrangement is illustrated in Fig. 4. In his experiments two hollow exhausted tubes H H were slipped over the wires of the recoil circuit and upon discharging the jar in the usual manner luminosity was excited in the tubes.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Another experiment performed is illustrated in Fig. 5. In this case an ordinary lamp-bulb was surrounded by one or two turns of thick copper wire P and the luminous circle L excited in the bulb by discharging the jar through the primary. The lamp-bulb was provided with a tinfoil coating on the side opposite to the primary and each time the tinfoil coating was connected to the ground or to a large object the luminosity of the circle was considerably increased. This was evidently due to electrostatic action.

In other experiments I have noted that when the primary touches the glass the luminous circle is easier produced and is more sharply defined; but I have not noted that, generally speaking, the circles induced were very sharply defined, as Prof. J. J. Thomson has observed; on the contrary, in my experiments they were broad and often the whole of the bulb or tube was illuminated; and in one ease I have observed an intensely purplish glow, to which Prof. J. J. Thomson refers. But the circles were always in close proximity to the primary and were considerably easier produced when the latter was very close to the glass, much more so than would be expected assuming the action to be electromagnetic and considering the distance; and these facts speak for an electrostatic effect.

Furthermore I have observed that there is a molecular bombardment in the plane of the luminous circle at right angles to the glass – supposing the circle to be in the plane of the primary – this bombardment being evident from the rapid heating of the glass near the primary. Were the bombardment not at right angles to the glass the heating could not be so rapid. If there is a circumferential movement of the molecules constituting the luminous circle, I have thought that it might be rendered manifest by placing within the tube or bulb, radially to the circle, a thin plate of mica coated with some phosphorescent material, and another such plate tangentially to the circle. If the molecules would move circumferentially, the former plate would be rendered more intensely phosphorescent. For want of time I have, however, not been able to perform the experiment.

Another observation made by me was that when the specific inductive capacity of the medium between the primary and secondary is increased, the inductive effect is augmented. This is roughly illustrated in Fig. 6. In this case luminosity was excited in an exhausted tube or bulb B and a glass tube T slipped between the primary and the bulb, when the effect pointed out was noted. Were the action wholly electromagnetic no change could possibly have been observed.

I have likewise noted that when a bulb is surrounded by a wire closed upon itself and in the plane of the primary, the formation of the luminous circle within the bulb is not prevented. But if instead of the wire a broad strip of tinfoil is glued upon the bulb, the formation of the luminous band was prevented, because then the action was distributed over a greater surface. The effect of the closed tinfoil was no doubt of an electrostatic nature, for it presented a much greater resistance than the closed wire and produced therefore a much smaller electromagnetic effect.

Some of the experiments of Prof. J. J. Thomson also would seem to show some electrostatic action. For instance, in the experiment with the bulb enclosed in a bell jar, I should think that when the latter is exhausted so far that the gas enclosed reaches the maximum conductivity, the formation of the circle in the bulb and jar is prevented because of the space surrounding the primary being highly conducting; when the jar is further exhausted the conductivity of the space around the primary diminishes and the circles appear necessarily first in the bell jar as the rarefied gas is nearer to the primary. But were the inductive effect very powerful they would probably appear in the bulb also. If, however, the bell jar were exhausted to the highest degree they would very likely show themselves in the bulb only, that is, supposing the vacuous space to be non-conducting. On the assumption that in these phenomena electrostatic actions are concerned we find it easily explicable why the introduction of mercury or the heating of the bulb prevents the formation of the luminous band or shorten the after-glow; and also why in some cases a platinum wire may prevent the excitation of the tube. Nevertheless some of the experiments of Prof. J. J. Thomson would seem to indicate an electro-magnetic effect. I may add that in one of my experiments in which a vacuum was produced in the Torricellian method, I was unable to produce the luminous band, but this may have been due to the weak exciting current employed.

Fig. 5.

Fig. 6.

My principal argument is the following: I have experimentally proved that if the same discharge which is barely sufficient to excite a luminous band in the bulb when passed through the primary circuit be so directed as to exalt the electrostatic inductive effect — namely, by converting upwards — an exhausted tube, devoid of electrodes, may be excited at a distance of several feet.

Megger: Continuously innovating for over 125 years!

The Dover factory on opening day

Here’s something not many people know: Megger has been driving innovation in the electrical measurement sector for almost as long as Electrical Review has been published. Evershed & Vignoles, the company that became Megger, was founded in 1895, when Electrical Review was just 23 years old, and the Megger trademark was registered in 1903.

Right from the start, Megger was renowned for innovation. In the 1890s, electricity was starting to become widely adopted and there was an urgent need to ensure that installations were safe and reliable. That meant measuring insulation resistance – however up until this point it could only be done under laboratory conditions and with low voltages. Sidney Evershed discovered a better way, using a portable hand-cranked generator that could produce high test voltages in the field and a measuring instrument that was unaffected by external influences. This was the first Megger insulation resistance tester, and it laid the foundations for all modern insulation testing.

The first instruments had the measuring device and generator in separate boxes so that they could be spaced far enough apart to avoid the generator influencing the sensitive meter but, by 1903 the design had improved to the extent that only one box was needed. Hand-cranked Meggers were accurate, reliable and convenient – so much so that, even after almost 120 years, they’re still in production at the Megger factory in Dover to this day. The main market now is countries where batteries for modern electronic instruments may not be easy to obtain.

The Megger factory was originally located in London, but a new factory on the present site in Dover was built during the early 1960s. Initially, this was a satellite factory for the London operations but, after it had been substantially extended, almost all work transferred there in 1966. The extended factory was officially opened by Admiral of the Fleet, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma on 24th October 1966. Although it has undergone significant redevelopment and further extension, this factory is still in use today. The Dover site is also Megger’s world headquarters for low-voltage instrument development and design.

Inventing the first insulation tester is by no means Megger’s only early achievement; it is also responsible for the now ubiquitous multimeter. Until 1923, electrical engineers had to carry around a bag of separate instruments to enable them to measure current, voltage and resistance. Then Donald Macadie, a Post Office engineer, came up with the idea of a combination instrument – a multimeter – that would measure Amps, Volts and Ohms. The initial letters of these units gave the instrument its name – the AVO meter. A new company was formed to make these instruments, which ultimately became part of today’s Megger Group.

Instruments based on Macadie’s original design were still being manufactured in the Dover site until early in this century, when rising costs and falling demand ultimately made production uneconomic. During this long production life, many special-purpose AVO meters were produced but one in particular stands out: the Braille AVO meter for blind users. There must have been a demand for these instruments, or they wouldn’t have been made, but it’s interesting to speculate how users would have attached the test leads to the equipment under test…

Specialised instruments based on Megger insulation testers have also been produced, possibly one of the most memorable being the ‘pork resistance meter’ or, to give it its official name, the Meg Salinity Tester. Complete with a hand-cranked generator, just like a normal Megger, this instrument was used to measure the resistance of brined pork joints to determine whether the brine had penetrated sufficiently for the meat to be properly cured. Let no one say that Megger instruments aren’t versatile.

Over the years, other unusual products that have emerged from Megger’s Dover site have included photographic light meters, thermionic valve testers, signal generators for radio and television testing, and an extensive range of instruments for use in the nuclear industry. Today, however, the focus is firmly on instruments for low-voltage electrical applications, including the remarkable new MFT-X1 multifunction installation tester which was developed and is being manufactured in Dover.

Megger in Dover, and at its locations around the world, remains true to its history as an innovator in electrical testing, and the company holds a plethora of patents for developments in the testing of cables, circuit breakers, electrical installations, protective relay systems and more. It seems that some things definitely do get better with age, and two shining examples of this are undoubtedly Megger and Electrical Review!

The official opening of Megger’s Dover factory

The Braille AVO meter

1912 Electrical Review in Parliament

Throughout this 150th Anniversary edition, we have spoken about Electrical Review’s role in reporting on major events within the electrical industry. It has helped usher in new technologies and was the journal of record for many of the world’s finest electrical engineers. Given Electrical Review’s stature within the industry, it’s not all too surprising to see the publication’s name come up in some important debates within the UK’s Houses of Parliament. We’ve collated some of the most interesting namedrops here.

One of Electrical Review’s first mentions in the Houses of Parliament would come from none other than future Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald. It occurred during a debate of the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act of 1912.

This was an important bill that the Government reluctantly brought before Parliament due to the 1912 Miner’s Strike, which began at the end of February 1912. This was the first time miners in the UK had taken national strike action and it caused significant disruption, with almost one million miners taking part.

They ended up achieving their end goal of receiving a minimum wage due to the Coal Mines (Minimum Wage) Act 1912. However, during this debate, Ramsay MacDonald noted, “A six weeks’ partial strike – according to the Noble Lord’s own admission – on English railways would be such a very serious matter that if you could not stop it you could not boast very much of the legislation that failed. Those who read the ‘Times’ will see an interesting article, a column in length, on the fifth page this morning, regarding the failure of compulsory arbitration in New Zealand.

GOAL MINES (MINIMUM WAGE) BILL, 1912

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACT, 1964

The United Kingdom Government recognised in the early 1960s that there were a number of agencies responsible for conducting civil scientific research, yet these were fragmented and responsibilities were divided. This was despite scientific research growing in importance for nations across the world.

The United Kingdom wanted to improve its focus on the development of science and technology, and thus proposed the Science Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council. It would also establish a new Ministry of Technology, giving powers that were fragmented across multiple departments to the new Minister of Technology.

During the debate James Boyden, the Junior Minister for Education and Science, noted Electrical Review’s support for the proposals. He said, “I thought that the right hon. and learned Gentleman was not as comfortable as he looked.

“Certainly, this is a difficult problem. It is one which the Bill will do a good deal to remedy.

“I intended to give more elaboration of the support that we have found for the Bill. I give just one more instance, from a technical journal, the Electrical Review:

“‘It is clear that Mr. Cousins and his principal colleagues are not now wasting any time and they exhibit an impressive grasp of what is required of them in guiding and stimulating a major national effort to bring advanced technology and new processes to British industry.’”

FOSSIL FUEL LEVY, 1989

The Electricity Act of 1989 introduced a brand-new levy paid by suppliers of electricity from non-renewable energy sources in the United Kingdom. Upon its introduction in 1990, the levy was set at 10.6%, but before it would reach Royal Assent, the levy was heavily debated upon in Parliament.

Rhodri Morgan, the soon-to-be First Minister of Wales, challenged the Conservative Government’s proposed fossil fuel levy, noting that it could be confusing for consumers. He commented, “An issue of Electrical Review that came out over Christmas carried the headline ‘Proposed Contracts are Riskless’. The description that the Minister has given is a perfect description of a contract that is riskless for the private sector. The electricity consumer will now have to pay the private generator to build private generating stations. If that is the purpose of the Bill, it is about time the consumer knew it.

“My hon. Friend the Member for Aberdeen, South (Mr. Doran) and I spent a long time examining Government amendments Nos. 36 to 43, and concluded that they showed that the nuclear levy is in serious trouble. The Government and the electricity companies do not know, and the consumer and the House certainly do not know, how the nuclear levy will work. It has been devised at a Sir Humphrey’s mad hatter’s tea party and the amendments show us all just how much trouble the levy is in and just how short a time the Government have left to get it right.

“The area boards do not know how the nuclear levy will be collected. They know only that the additional costs of nuclear production over coal production – which John Baker, the chief executive, told us would be 42 per cent. in the financial year that has just started – will be distributed in some way. The proposal cuts completely across the concept at the heart of the Bill and the Idea of direct contracts between generators and suppliers. It looks to us as though the Government are beginning to admit that they have devised a wholly unworkable system for collecting the levy.”

THE BRITISH GAS CORPORATION, 1972

Electrical Review may have its eye on the electrical industry, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t kept current with the happenings in its sister industry – gas. That’s why it’s no surprise that the publication was name dropped in a debate regarding the establishment of the British Gas Corporation.

The British Gas Corporation would replace the Gas Council, centralising control away from individual gas boards across the numerous regions across the UK. This was prior to privatisation, and would simply see a new Government Corporation take responsibility for the development and maintenance of the supply of gas to Great Britain.

Arthur Palmer, a Labour politician, was opposed to the creation of the British Gas Corporation, and he took to quoting Electrical Review’s editorial to make a point during a debate. He noted, “Many arguments have been used against this change. Even if one ignores the ever useful Mr. Kelf-Cohen –like Shakespeare, he is always quotable – one can turn to the Electrical Review, which might be thought a little biased but which has a strong point here. It has expressed the hope that this system will not be used for electricity supply. One of its reasons for deploring this change in the sister industry was:

“‘A loss will be that the Department of Trade and Industry will no longer have official contacts at the ‘grass roots’ or Board level, and instead of establishing its views on how the industry is being managed and operated from an amalgam of a wide range of opinions it will have to be content with a single industry view…’”

“We suggest that a little could be done in this way to maintain the local interest.

“This new organisation is likely to be too big for effective central management, and it will remove to a great extent local influences on policy and make the work of the consumer councils much more difficult. We suggest that the Amendment goes some way to removing the greatest objection to the legislation’s present form – that it over-centralises.”

ENERGY BILL, 2008

Electrical Review was last quoted in the House of Commons in 2008 by none other than Colin Challen, a Labour politician who has said that “catastrophic destabilisation of global climate represents the greatest threat that humanity faces.”

During a debate on the Energy Bill, which would later become the Energy Act of 2008, another Labour politician had men-

tioned how Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace, had changed his views on nuclear energy, remarking that “nuclear energy may just be the energy source that can save our planet from another possible disaster: catastrophic climate change.”

However, Challen disagreed with the suggestion that Moore be taken as an expert, quoting Electrical Review as a source. In his retort, he noted, “Patrick Moore’s name was prayed in aid last week, during the statement. Somebody kindly sent me a copy of the Electrical Review, volume 240, No. 4. An article in it states that Dr. Moore “wrote last year to the Royal Society arguing there was no ‘scientific proof’ that mankind was causing global warming”.

“Was that the kind of statement to which my hon. Friend referred?”

Socomec: Mastering electrical energy and how curiosity sparked a legacy

Some 50 years after the first issue of Electrical Review hit shelves, one man’s curiosity about the behaviour of electrical currents would spark the creation of a family legacy that would be placed firmly at the heart of the energy industry for generations to come – Socomec.

In 2022, Socomec, which was founded by Joseph Siat in 1922, celebrates its centenary – joining the inner circle of century-old French businesses. Ivan Steyert, the fourth-generation CEO of the company founded by his great-grandfather, shares his unique insight into the company’s heritage and its future direction.

WHERE DOES THE SOCOMEC STORY BEGIN?

Our story begins in the Alsace countryside in the spring of 1922, where my great-grandfather – textile engineer, Joseph Siat – experimented endlessly with electrical accessories in his rural workshop in the Bas-Rhin village of Benfeld. His curiosity was ignited by the unpredictability of electrical currents and his attention soon turned to switches, circuit breakers and other fuse-based solutions as he tried to reduce the variations in what was, at that time, still a poorly controlled current.

Socomec is now a young centenarian. This is a source of great pride because few companies reach this age with such demonstrable stability and with continued family shareholding. In the last 100 years, we have experienced war, with economic and political crises on a global scale, as well as facing new challenges in terms of the environment and our impact upon it, but we have been able to adapt and reinvent ourselves whilst retaining our values of independence, innovation and responsibility.

WHAT DRIVES THE BUSINESS TODAY?

Our customers are our greatest inspiration – across the entire business. Our customers inform the way that we work across departments and, in turn, our development work draws on that in the widest possible sense.

Whether smart switches, modular measurement systems or UPS, the most sophisticated electrical and electronic equipment has been developed over the course of the last century to meet the security and continuity needs of critical installations, such as data centres, airports, healthcare settings and industrial infrastructure.

In more recent years, we have been developing progressive energy storage solutions to support the energy transition and the increasing use of renewable energies. In every critical setting – whether providing power, light or guaranteeing continuity of activity – Socomec provides truly innovative solutions that are adapted specifically for these vital installations.

How do you maintain such a strong sense of tradition whilst constantly innovating in a shifting landscape?

The political and economic landscape has altered beyond measure over the last century – and continues to change rapidly today.

Part of Socomec’s success lies in its combination of strong and stable foundations and its ability to be the master of its own destiny, whereby adaptability and innovation are part of the very fabric of the organisation.

What is the secret of such longevity? Above all, how can we make it last so that we can continue this wonderful adventure? There is no miracle or mystery ingredient.

Our stable and solid foundations allow us to move forward, to renew ourselves, to adapt to the transformation of our environment, of our markets, to differentiate ourselves through our expertise and through innovation. This is even more the case in the period we are going through now. Innovation will be the key to continuing this great adventure, both in our products and in our ways of working. Because energy matters and, together, we have plenty of it.

HOW DO YOU INNOVATE IN CHALLENGING TIMES?

With a century of proven innovation to draw upon, and a culture of exploration and invention, it’s no surprise that Socomec continued to up the ante during what was a uniquely challenging year for every organisation around the world.

Driving innovation forward is one aspect of the process – but looking back is vital. By running a retrospective of innovation launched during 2021, for example, and reflecting on our work in this way we are able to help teams learn and adapt. It means that we can better understand what works well and what might need to change. Reviewing how we have innovated in the past helps us to innovate better for tomorrow.

Our customers are truly embedded in our ideation and development processes. It’s a really collaborative approach that ensures that we are delivering exactly what the customer needs – whilst also de-risking the development and speeding up time to market.

What’s more, we challenge everything in order to exceed expectations, whether that is process or strategy; by rigorously interrogating every aspect we are able to drive performance that much further.

Sometimes that means starting with a blank sheet of paper and sometimes it’s about taking a relatively simple and proven concept and introducing incremental changes that ultimately deliver something completely new. When these are changes that resolve your customers’ greatest issues, it’s possible to deliver unprecedented value.

HOW HAVE YOU CELEBRATED THE CENTENARY?

Socomec’s centenary is a reflection of what has made us successful so far – strong values that have been shared by successive generations and working in the spirit of conviviality and sharing. We are driven by a common vision; one of mastering electrical energy by demonstrating responsibility, openness and commitment.

For a century, thanks to our employees, customers and partners, we have been able to meet our most critical technological challenges, standing the test of time and becoming a major player in the world of energy, today and tomorrow.

Socomec has celebrated throughout this exceptional year, marking the anniversary by giving employees the opportunity to complete 100 challenges that will unlock donations to charity.

Individual and team challenges united participants from across the business – and around the world, covering themes including, ‘knowing the company’, committing to more ecological and social practices, ‘moving your body’ to sporting challenges, ‘meeting and sharing’ to encourage working beyond borders and

‘celebrating’ to highlight the business’ accomplishments. In the UK one such event was a cycling challenge that took place over eight days between June 18th and 25th, with teams made up of both employees, as well as partner organisations including Arup, Durata, Paktronic, Yuasa, Lloyd Morris and Waldeck Consulting.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP FLAGSHIP PRODUCTS?

Research and development is in our DNA: we are always learning, always discovering and always innovating. Our AC and DC equipment combines our expertise in energy switching, measurement, conversion and storage, for energy that’s ever more available, secure, flexible and efficient – for example, our Diris Digiware DC range makes the metering, measurement and monitoring of DC electrical energy quality simpler than it’s ever been before.

Diris Digiware is a unique, fully digital, multi-circuit plug and play measurement concept that brings together groundbreaking digital electrical measuring technology – from sensors to software - to deliver an unrivalled degree of flexibility to installations.

In 1992, a young engineer tasked with launching electronic development within Socomec’s then switchgear division focused his research on electrical multi-measurement. The vision of that young engineer – Michel Krumenacker, who is now Deputy CEO at Socomec – opened an entirely new market for Socomec, setting the industry benchmark.

Over 20 years after having revolutionised the electrical multi-measurement market with our Diris meter, Socomec once again set the precedent in leading-edge power monitoring systems with the launch of the new Diris Digiware.

We know, however, that one size does not fit all, which is why our standard offer can be adapted to create tailor-made solutions. That’s also why we have created modular ranges of UPS equipment, for example.

With more than 20 years of experience in developing and supplying modular solutions, Socomec’s Modulys solutions provide the ultimate availability, scalability and extended lifetime to critical applications in IT infrastructures.

Based on proven technology – with several thousand modular systems in the field – the range has been described as the gold standard in terms of power scalability and risk-free maintenance in a truly online modular format.

By removing most of the risk and uncertainty often associated with new developments, and starting with the intrinsic value of products within our current range – combined with insight and expertise from the market – it has been possible to deliver something exceptional.

Because we include our customers in the development process – at every step along the way – we have been able to take all the knowledge of our big data centre technology and democratise that technology – making it accessible and relevant for every application.

HOW DO YOU DEVELOP FLAGSHIP PRODUCTS?

For 100 years, our family-owned, independent group has been dedicated to the development of innovative solutions – solutions that we then adapt to our partners’ specific and most critical needs. We are resolute in that commitment – and we will be working side by side today and for the next 100 years.

Increasingly, we are deploying our resources to help our partners accelerate their energy transitions – to take advantage of all that renewable energy has to offer and to help find simple and pragmatic solutions to what can feel like complex challenges. We do this by combining our know-how and technologies – along with the sustainability of our products – to contribute to a more responsible world.

Leveraging strong historical expertise in both AC and DC power monitoring, power switching and conversion, Socomec has invested in energy storage applications since the early 2010s and has participated in a number of progressive experiments with major utilities, battery manufacturers, energy management software editors and pioneering energy storage system integra tors. The result is a range of innovative and proven solutions

for commercial and industrial buildings, isolated and resilient microgrids, renewable energy integration, mobile energy storage and electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

One such solution is Socomec’s SUNSYS – a native outdoor system that merges proven technologies to create an all-in-one solution that is greater than the sum of its parts. Safe and compliant, this system sets a new standard when it comes to safety. Whether peak shaving or load shifting, SUNSYS will deliver optimised savings plus a rapid return on investment while maximising renewable energy production.

The fact that we are an independent group means that we guarantee the control of all of our strategic and operational decisions – which are in keeping with the values forged by our family shareholding and members of staff. Our assets and approach allow us to create lasting value and sustainable growth for our shareholders, employees, customers and partners – as well as in relation to our wider society and the environment. We firmly believe that by taking control of all aspects of design and operation – as well as energy usage – it is possible to create reliable, sustainable solutions and build a better future for us all, starting now.

1924 Circuit Breaker

Most of us take for granted that a flick of a switch or press of a button turns on the lights, starts up a computer, or engages the EV charger, without ever thinking about where this electricity comes from, or how it is delivered.

The circuit breaker plays a critical role in energy distribution networks globally — mainly used in utilities, power generation and renewable applications, or substations in cities — because it protects electrical systems from damage by interrupting and safely re-establishing a disrupted current flow.

By way of example, medium voltage circuit breakers are installed in data centers around the world to ensure the highest data availability — and in a typical facility hosting 130,000 servers, a minimum of five circuit breakers protect the network.

If a power interruption occurs, a circuit breaker isolates the section of the network at risk within milliseconds — which is 10 times faster than the blink of an eye — to safeguard the energy flow. When this happens, the breaker is exposed to intense heat ranging from 5,000 degrees to 6,000 degrees Celsius, temperatures capable of melting rocks.

So, next time you settle down to watch your favorite TV show without any interruption, spare a thought for medium voltage circuit breakers, which are providing optimal power flow.

BIRTH OF THE CIRCUIT BREAKER

An early form of circuit breaker was described by Thomas Edison in an 1879 patent application, although his commercial power distribution system used fuses. Its purpose was to protect lighting circuit wiring from accidental short circuits and overloads.

In 1924, a miniature circuit breaker — similar to the ones now in use — was patented by a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies, Brown, Boveri and Cie (BBC), which in the intervening years became ABB.

However, it was German engineer Hugo Stotz — who sold his company to BBC in 1918 — and his chief engineer, Heinrich Schachtner, that were generally recognised as the inventors. Stotz and Schachtner’s version made the rapidly increasing electrification of private homes safer and more efficient and was the forerunner of the modern thermal-magnetic breaker commonly used in load centres to this day.

Incidentally, it’s Schachtner’s name that appears on the U.S. patent — No. 1,629,640 — for the miniature circuit breaker, issued May 24, 1927.

“My invention relates to automatic electric circuit breakers of the kind in which two contact pieces normally pressed together by springs are separated by the interposition of an insulating slide,” Schachtner wrote, according to the U.S. Patent Office document.

“When the overload in the apparatus ceases, switching-on can be affected by the mere pressure of the finger without the necessity of unscrewing the apparatus from its socket.”

Prior to circuit breakers, fuse technology was considered cutting-edge — where a metal wire melts when too much current flows through it — when it came to shielding buildings from electrical fires. The problem was the fuse had to be replaced every time there was a fault. Here’s where Stotz and Schachtner produced a revolution by combining thermal and magnetic trips into a single, reusable unit capable of switching off high currents without requiring devices to be replaced repeatedly.

The first serial production of the miniature circuit breaker began in 1928 at the Stotz facility in southern Germany and was met with immediate success, as its device could easily be screwed into the existing fuse base and no changes to the electrical installation were required.

Today, nearly every household is equipped with miniature circuit breakers to stop the flow of electricity, protecting people and equipment from electrical fire.

A small but essential piece of equipment — the humble circuit breaker — has long had the power to make a big impact across the electrification industry and to energy management in general, explains Sami Raitakoski, Global Head of ABB’s Control & Protection Products.

PUSHING THE TECHNOLOGY FURTHER

Being an inventor, Stotz and his team continued to push circuit technology further. In 1928 they developed a special circuit breaker for coping with loads of higher starting currents, including motor applications. This opened the door for industrial applications that nowadays can withstand the harshest of environments, such as dust, humidity and condensation.

Over the years ABB has produced more than a billion circuit breakers and continues to pioneer its evolution through commercial and industrial applications and digital technology. There are versions for an extensive range of requirements, including heavy industries like Oil and Gas plus Marine, as well as large switchgear designed to protect high voltage circuits feeding an entire city.

intelligent insight and data. Original equipment manufacturers and panel builders can now take advantage of smarter integrated and digitally enhanced circuit breakers — complete with Industry 4.0 level sensing technology — without having to completely change installations, make substantial investments or transform operations.

In today’s increasingly challenging times though, it must be about plug and play solutions that make switching to digital operations seamless, simple and cost effective — without having to completely change installations, make substantial investments or transform operations.

One of the first new generation circuit breakers is the VD4 evo, launched September 2022. Its design incorporates sensor enhancements for all thermal, mechanical and electrical parameters along with an advanced Central Monitoring Unit for 24/7, real-time analytics.

With key information delivered via a simple, intuitive dashboard, this approach enables improved visibility of equipment data, status and condition from anywhere in the world — and is completed with diagnostics reports and alarm notifications.

In fact, the MV VD4 circuit breaker has been the market benchmark for more than 35 years and today, with over 2 million units installed in 100+ countries, helps to bring secure power and energy to homes, businesses, and the infrastructure that keeps the world running.

It’s the model of choice for most modern electricity distribution applications, but since the mid-1980s this little, often overlooked gem, has been leading the way in power distribution for control and protection of cables, overhead lines, transformer and distribution substations, plus motors.

DIGITALISATION

However, with demand for resilient power 24/7 accelerating at breakneck speed, even the small but perfectly formed circuit breaker has some limits in today’s world. Unfortunately, such is the demand for power, outages and supply shutdowns are still a concern for operators of medium and low voltage switchgear. Such scenarios are not only financially costly, but potentially damaging to corporate reputation too. And for many of these unwanted incidents, the origins are often unknown to the users and operators.

This is where circuit breaker technology has taken another leap into the 21st century through digitalisation, helping end users and system integrators unlock the value of their assets through

“ With demand for resilient power 24/7 accelerating at breakneck speed, even the small but perfectly formed circuit breaker has some limits in today’s world.

Alongside this, through technological enhancements it becomes easier to predict wear and tear and increase overall lifespan and output, helping to save thousands of dollars per solution when compared to traditional MV switchgear.

The result is a series of significant operational and financial benefits for end users, such as Utilities and Industries. Thanks to the ability to detect issue signals ahead of time, which reduces the risk of power outages by 30%, it is possible to achieve savings in the range of $10,000, depending on the application. It also increases operation and maintenance efficiency by as much as 60%, minimising Opex expenses.

SUSTAINABILITY

While safety has been the critical driver behind circuit breaker technology since its invention, today, businesses of all sizes are also challenged with adopting sustainable operations. Taking the VD4 evo as an example, its ultra-compact design and energy efficient operation is fully Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certified. It is 15% smaller and around 30% lighter compared to traditional MV breakers with consequent saving of more than $3,500 per switchgear on footprint square metre cost by itself.

As an essential component of digital switchgear, it also plays its part in helping to save up to 150 tons of CO2 emissions over a 30-year lifetime of a 14-panel unit — the equivalent to a million km in long haul economy flights.

Equally, the ability to make better decisions in all aspects of installation and repair work ensures advanced safety and protection for personnel and maintenance staff.

So, the humble but constantly evolving circuit breaker is now unlocking a more resilient, efficient, safer and environmentally sustainable power distribution network — by facilitating the transition to a brighter digital future.

In the modern smart grid concept, the role of the MV circuit breaker has evolved from a simple protection device to an active apparatus, able to interact directly with the main installation-specific electrical quantities and coordinate operations. Advancements in sensor technologies have paved the way for making the power grid more reliable, robust, and intelligent, while integration of the new generation of IoT sensor and control electronics is tangibly extending quality and operational performance of the apparatus, as well as opening up new business models.

1935 National Grid

Edison built the world’s first public power station at Holborn Viaduct in 1882. It generated enough electricity to power 3,000 16-candle incandescent lamps between Holborn Circus and St Martin’s Le Grand. However, the financials of operating such a small power station just for some street lighting made no sense, leading to the power station to close and the lights to be converted back to gas lamps.

The problem with this early installation is that it relied on Edison’s direct current technology running at relatively low voltages. In fact, Edison’s incandescent lights ran at just 110 volts, and the problem with low voltage DC is that it just didn’t travel that far.

George Westinghouse would enter the fray in 1884, with his own competing DC lighting system, but soon caught wind of a new form of electricity transmission that was being developed in Europe – alternating current. The advantage of this technology meant that Westinghouse could build economical, large power stations that generate electricity at very high voltages and then transmit that over much longer distances to be ‘stepped down’ with a transformer at the other end.

Unsurprisingly, Westinghouse’s technique was hugely successful. In the first demonstration of the technology in the US, the Westinghouse Electric Company installed the first multiple-voltage AC power system, a demonstration incandescent lighting system, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The system was capable of lighting 23 businesses along main street with very little power loss over 4,000 feet, using transformers to step 500 AC volts at the street down to 100 volts to power incandescent lamps at each location.

Alternating current would strongly compete with Edison’s direct current for several years, although as it grew to serve larger and larger areas, criticism of the technology would grow. That’s because while AC could travel long distances at a high voltage level, those high voltages would be seen as dangerous by many.

Many European cities and the city of Chicago in the US required high voltage electrical lines to be buried underground in order to protect citizens, but that wasn’t the case universally. In fact, in New York City, it was normal to see a mishmash of overhead wires for telephone, telegraph, fire and burglar alarm systems, mixed with haphazardly strung AC lighting system wires carrying up to 6,000 volts.

The issue with these wires is that they were not built with safety in mind, with one electrician at the time referring to the insulation on the power lines as having as much value “as a molasses covered rag.”

However, despite the dangers, many subscribed to AC power transmission; it was clear that the benefits outweighed the cons. Thus, many began thinking bigger than Westinghouse – considering whether we could move power stations outside of cities and generate electricity at a much larger scale.

PUSHING THE TECHNOLOGY FURTHER

In January 1901, W. B. Esson, M.LC.E, M.LE.E wrote in Electrical Review, “It is admitted that for transmitting power the electrical method has no rival, when the points between which the transmission takes place are beyond quite a moderate distance.

For short distances the telodynamic system of transmission, by means of wire ropes, is a rival worthy of consideration; but on the European continent, where this method has been developed to the fullest extent, I am not aware that the total distance has ever exceeded three-quarters of a mile. Possibly from this, up to a mile or so, there is a debatable land which is liable to be turned over-to electrical transmission or telodynamic transmission as circumstances may direct, but beyond this electricity holds the field, and if it will not pay to transmit the power electrically, it will not pay to transmit it at all.”

In the same year, Charles Hesterman Merz would open the Neptune Bank Power Station, in partnership with his father’s firm, the North Eastern Electric Supply Company. The company was formed to help generate electricity for a large part of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, competing with another newly-formed company, the Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company.

While the Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company agreed to supply electricity to the west of Newcastle’s Grainger Street, the North Eastern Electric Supply company would supply electricity to the east. However, they would have two very different strategies in how they would fulfil their goal.

With the construction of the Neptune Bank Power Station, the North Eastern Electric Supply Company would become the first company in the world to generate electricity using three-phase electrical power distribution at a voltage of 5,500 volts, which was a principle established by Nikola Tesla at the end of the 19th century.

The station had an initial generating capacity of 2,800 kW, which was increased to 3,000 kW a year after the station opened, with the introduction of two 1,500 kW Parsons turbo alternators, the largest ever built at that time. To send that electricity into Newcastle, the company laid high-tension cables from the power station to various substations across the city.

The motor-generators in these substations provided DC from the supplied AC and the transformers stepped-down the 6,000 volts supply to 200 volts for lighting use and 400 volts for industrial use.

The system that the North Eastern Electric Supply Company would develop would become so successful that by 1912 it had developed into the largest integrated power system in Europe, with power stations across the area working together to produce the amount of electricity a growing Newcastle demanded.

Despite the success of this interconnected system, however, much of the rest of the UK would rely on a patchwork of small, local supply networks. However, the Government had taken notice of Merz’s success, and electricity generation and transmission within the UK was about to change…

THE NATIONAL GRID

In 1925, the British government asked Lord Weir, a Glaswegian industrialist, to solve the problem of Britain’s inefficient and fragmented electricity supply industry. Weir consulted Merz, and the result was the Electricity (Supply) Act 1926, which recommended that a “national gridiron” supply system be created. The 1926 Act created the Central Electricity Board, which set up the UK’s first synchronised, nationwide AC grid, running at 132 kV, 50 Hz.

However, while the UK’s electricity supply was now standardised by linking the 122 most efficient power stations in the UK through more than 4,000 miles of cables, it began operations as a series of regional grids with auxiliary interconnections for emergency use. Those grids were controlled from a central control room in Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, London and Glasgow.

However, the engineers in those control rooms had an idea –what would happen if all of the seven regions were combined into one large ‘national grid’? Well, as they say it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, so one evening the engineers decided to see if they could do some short-term paralleling of the seven grids. Thankfully, the test was successful, and by 1938, the national grid was operating as one.

THE FUTURE

It’s easy to take the supply of electricity in the UK for granted, as for many it’s something that magically comes to their house through underground cables. However, it has taken more than a century to get to the point we are at today. In the late 1800s, few could believe that we would have a system that enabled power stations to be built outside of populous areas that generated electricity for an entire country.

The National Grid was developed because it was more efficient to build power stations near to the source of their power – such as coal mines – compared to shipping the coal directly into the centre of the city. These days, the National Grid enables us to ensure that we keep the lights on, which will be crucial in the switch to renewables.

It’s thanks to the National Grid that the UK was able to not only generate almost 20GW of electricity during a 30-minute window in October 2022, but it was also able to distribute that electricity to homes and businesses across the UK – not just those that are close to wind farms. Without the National Grid, it would be unlikely that the UK could have seen wind power account for 52% of total energy demand on that same day.

Plus while the future will see more renewables, it’s important to note that the National Grid is growing in size. That’s because while those engineers in 1937 may have wondered what would happen if they created a national-level electrical grid, the UK is now connected to much larger grids across the world.

While underground cables enabled communication with telegraphy when Electrical Review was first printed, many of the cables that are being laid in the UK’s coastal waters are now transmitting something entirely different – electricity. up the UK’s first synchronised, nationwide AC grid, running at 132 kV, 50 Hz.

1956 Nuclear Power

The discovery of nuclear fission can arguably be described as one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century — and it has some stiff competition, after all it was the same century that saw the invention of radio, television and the world wide web.

So why is nuclear fission so important? Well, while you can argue that there are many technologies that have changed the course of history, none have had a grip on the world in the same way as nuclear fission. It’s both seen as a technological marvel that greatly benefits society, as well as being the potential source of its downfall.

In 1932, when British physicist Ernest Rutherford first discovered that splitting lithium atoms with protons would release an immense amount of energy, it was immediately obvious the potential uses this discovery could have. However, at the same time, both Rutherford and other physicists knew that harnessing the power of the atom for practical purposes anytime in the near future was unlikely.

However, that wouldn’t stop scientists from continuing to experiment, with Rutherford’s doctoral student, James Chadwick, discovering the neutron, which would later be fired at objects to create induced radioactivity. One such example of this is when a group of German chemists discovered that shooting neutrons at uranium atoms would lead to those atoms splitting into two roughly equal pieces, thus producing the first example of nuclear fission.

The scientific community quickly realised that if fission reactions released additional neutrons, a self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction could result, which was confirmed in an experiment conducted by Leo Szilard in 1939. However, many in that scientific community had a bold new idea for what this discovery could mean, especially as the world prepared for World War II – a bold new weapon.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Countries around the world clamoured to harness the massive amount of energy produced by nuclear fission, with Germany and the United States beginning early development of a nuclear weapon at the onset of the war. However, it was the UK and Canada that would have the first organised research project, dubbed Tube Alloys.

The UK’s research into nuclear weapons was arguably the most advanced, with the country outpacing American research for 18 months. However, the UK quickly realised that it could not financially sustain the project at the same time as waging a

large war across multiple continents. That led to the UK offering to help the United States on its own research as part of the Manhattan Project.

Of course, the Manhattan Project would be a huge success, leading to the world’s first and second nuclear bombs being dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. However, its destruction would change the world forever – with nuclear weapons changing the balance of power across the world between those that had them and those that didn’t. It would create an arms race between nations and lead to the threat of nuclear annihilation hanging over everyday citizens.

But while nuclear weapon development had caused the world to fear the discovery made by Rutherford and his fellow scientists in the 1930s, scientists in the United Kingdom were also working on another potential use for nuclear fission – nuclear power.

THE EARLY DAYS OF NUCLEAR POWER

Imagine a world where you could create copious amounts of clean energy from just a small fuel source. You could power entire cities from one large power station and the fuel required would be a fraction of what is needed at a gas or coal power plant. That was what was promised from nuclear power.

While British scientists had been working on nuclear energy through to the early 1940s, work significantly slowed during World War II. Thankfully, with the end of the war and the world seeing the potential of nuclear power, UK scientists were able to resume their work.

The United States’ Atomic Energy Act of 1946 would end nuclear cooperation between the UK and the US, which angered those in the UK’s Government; after all British scientists had significantly contributed to the Manhattan Project. However, both the UK and the US would take two different approaches to the development of nuclear energy post-World War II.

While the US was focused on nuclear reactors for marine propulsion, the UK would initially look to develop its own nuclear weapons, as well as begin looking at civil uses for nuclear energy. This research would lead to the opening of Calder Hall, the world’s first commercial-scale nuclear power reactor.

Calder Hall was designed as a completely experimental facility, initially outfitted with a single prototype Magnox reactor. This would produce 50 MWe, with the reactor being used to both generate electricity as well as produce plutonium for military purposes. This dual-purpose would continue until 1964, when the station would switch to purely producing electricity from its now four Magnox reactors, each producing 50 MWe.

The problem with these Magnox reactors is that they were primarily designed for the production of plutonium, and therefore had terrible efficiency when it came to power production. In fact, the Calder Hill reactors achieved an efficiency of just 18.8%, compared to typical nuclear power plants today, which achieve efficiencies around 33-37%.

Despite the low efficiency, the UK Government decided to promote nuclear power as an alternative to coal in 1957, citing the success of Calder Hall. It promised that there would be a building programme to achieve 5,000 to 6,000 MWe capacity by 1965, a quarter of the UK’s generating needs. This was later scaled back in 1960 to 3,000 MWe, due to the costs associated with nuclear power vs coal.

The UK would eventually achieve just 2259 MWe of installed power by the end of 1965, but that would further accelerate over the next decade as large-scale nuclear power stations such as Wylfa came online, which was capable of producing 980 MWe from its two Magnox reactors.

However, this would be the last time the Magnox reactor would be deployed in the UK, with the second-generation Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor taking its place in subsequent projects. In fact, all nuclear power stations in the UK opened between 1976 and 1989 would use this new type of reactor.

THE EBBS AND FLOWS OF POPULARITY

The UK’s relationship with nuclear power can be described as an ebb and flow of popularity. The high cost of nuclear power initially led to the slowdown in new projects, before being resurrected in 1979 by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The Winter of Discontent was largely responsible for Thatcher’s passionate plea for new nuclear projects, alongside the 1979 oil crisis. It was seen as a solution to ensure the UK had energy security, and would prevent the country from returning to the three-day week that was enforced under her predecessor’s Government as a result of blackouts.

Thatcher proposed that the UK would turn to American technology with a new fleet of nuclear power stations, with a commitment to build one new power station with a Westinghouse-designed Pressurised Water Reactor per year for at least a decade from 1982 – which would have generated about 15 GWe in total.

However, while many might categorise Thatcher’s commitment as a new flow for nuclear power, the ebb shortly followed. By 1982, the Government had begun rowing back its proposed programme – as it considered privatising the electricity industry – and thus would not commit to the construction of any new nuclear power stations.

In the end, just one new nuclear power station was constructed using a PWR, Sizewell B. Ironically, in the October 1982 edition of Electrical Review, Dr Len Brookes, the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority’s Chief Economist, argued the case for building Sizewell B. An argument that is now being rejuvenated for Sizewell C.

THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR POWER

Where does nuclear power go in the future? Well, the UK is already planning to construct new nuclear power stations to help with energy security, while British firm Rolls-Royce is hoping to roll-out new Small Modular Reactors. This could mean that the golden age for nuclear power is still ahead of us.

1961 Interconnectors

The world is more interconnected than ever – made all the more evident by the current financial crisis looming over the United Kingdom and countries across the globe. However, one area of interconnection that is not often thought of is electrical interconnection.

The UK has long been connected to the continent through undersea cables, with the Brett Brothers laying the first telegraph cable between England and France in September 1850. However, it would take another 100 years before the countries would connect their electrical grids through the use of an interconnector.

In 1961, some 33 years before the opening of the Channel Tunnel and 12 years before the UK would join the European Economic Community (EEC), the UK would finally see an electrical connection to France by means of the first HVDC Cross-Channel scheme, which was built by Swedish firm, ASEA.

This connection would have the capacity to transmit 160 megawatts of power between the UK and France, enabling the two countries to profit from excess electricity that it was generating. While it was seen as a major milestone upon its completion, the cable suffered substantial downtime due to it being frequently damaged by fishing nets.

Despite the damage, this connection between the UK and France had shown that the concept of connecting the UK’s grid with Europe’s could help ensure the supply of electricity during peak demand, and profit from any excess generation. Therefore, it was inevitable that just like the telegraph cables that came before, the UK would not stop at just one interconnector, but would plan more for the future.

AN INTERCONNECTED EUROPE

While the UK was forming its National Grid in 1935, just 16 years later, Europe would take it to a whole new level. Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland would begin discussions towards creating a continent-wide synchronous grid in 1951. This would enable the free flow of electricity between the participating nations, and while the UK would not participate, it could stand to benefit from having a connection to this large grid.

As Europe became even more connected, with its grid now supplying over 400 million customers in 24 countries, including most of the European Union, the UK began to look at even more opportunities for connection. In 1986, Interconnexion France-Angleterre (IFA), a joint venture between the French Transmission Operator RTE and National Grid, began operating a brand-new subsea electricity link between Great Britain and France.

The advantage of this new connection was that the UK and France could import or export more power than the previous connection, allowing even more flexibility. In fact, while the first cable was capable of transmitting just 160 megawatts of power, the new IFA connection would have a maximum transmission rating of 2,000 MW. To this day, IFA remains the world’s largest-capacity submarine cable HVDC system.

However, interconnection would not stop there. As of today, the UK has two interconnectors with France, as well as a direct connection to the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Denmark. All these interconnectors provide the UK’s grid with flexibility, which will be key to the future of the grid.

According to the National Grid, interconnectors will provide a vital role in the future. It allows the UK to import more affordable electricity from Europe, which reduces end-user bills and could save consumers millions of pounds a year by 2024. However, they haven’t been without controversy.

COMPETING WITH EUROPE

While interconnectors can benefit the UK by plugging any gaps with cheap excess electricity from the continent, some UK-based generators have criticised moves which allow interconnectors to play a larger role in generating electricity for the UK.

Since 2015 interconnectors have had the right to bid against domestic generators in the government’s capacity market auctions. However, industry insiders argue that interconnectors have an unfair advantage as they needn’t pay to use the national transmission system – which domestic generators do – while they also don’t have to pay any carbon tax in the GB energy market.

What that advantage means is that imported power could potentially be offered at a lower cost than domestic generation. Despite these concerns, the UK is increasingly turning to interconnectors to plug any generation gaps, even as some industry experts warn that interconnectors could potentially reduce investment in new domestic generation, threatening the UK’s energy security.

However, one thing we’ve seen recently is that as France’s nuclear power stations deal with reliability issues and Europe faces an overreliance on Russian gas imports, the UK has been able to benefit from its interconnectors. Rather than domestic producers having to compete with foreign generation, they’ve been able to export much of their electricity abroad.

The UK has long been a net importer of electricity, importing more than we export, but for the first time ever, Q2 2022 saw the UK become a net exporter. The UK exported 3.6TWh over the quarter, equivalent to around 5.7% of British electricity generation, and compared to the 5.2 TWh it imported in Q1. As the UK increases the amount of renewables on its grid, it’s possible that we could see this happen more frequently, with the UK diverting generation to the continent when there is a significant excess from wind power.

It’s unlikely that interconnectors are going anywhere anytime soon, with National Grid proposing within the last few months a new subsea cable between the UK and the Netherlands. In fact, it’s likely that the UK will increasingly turn to the construction of interconnectors as it takes advantage of the world’s largest electrical grid.

1961

Janitza: Complete solution for Energy Management Systems and Power Quality Management Systems

The scalable GridVis network analysis software enables realisation of the three applications of energy management, power quality monitoring and residual current detection.

Always a step ahead

For more than half a century now, Janitza has been manufacturing products that are always a little ahead of their time, starting with the world’s first electronic power factor controller with harmonic limit values and automatic step switching.

Janitza often introduces new technologies, combining existing applications to form convincing, intelligent products. This has brought the company worldwide recognition. From Class A power quality analysers with EN-50160 checking, through to complete energy data management systems: Janitza continuously set the standard for the entire industry.

QUALITY MANAGEMENT & CERTIFICATION

• All of Janitza’s energy data management systems comply with ISO 50001 – as the basis for the efficient handling of energy.

• In addition Janitza’s GridVis software for energy management systems is certified by a German-based, independent test institute, TÜV-Süd. This way you will get an officially approved certified energy data acquisition system that provides transparency – both for you as a customer and also for your future ISO 50001 certification.

• In order to guarantee secure communication with our measurement devices (UMGs), they are also checked and certified by independent institutes.

• The PQM standard IEC61000-4-30 is fulfilled by all of our corresponding Class A devices; these are some of the most innovative, compact and competitive devices on the market.

Janitza wants to systematically plan, implement and monitor our quality. For that reason the company has used a documented management system for many years and this is constantly undergoing further development and improvement.

With this Janitza fulfils the requirements for a quality management system per DIN EN ISO 9001. To be able to guarantee your reliable energy supply, the power quality (PQ) is of utmost importance. Various different standards around the world define different aspects of power quality.

change the sinusoidal character of the current. And thus also the power quality.

This can damage your equipment, in some cases seriously. Impermissible electrical loading and increased thermal losses are then a daily occurrence. This can result in your equipment operating in a restricted manner or failing completely. This risks a production stop.

So it is advantageous to identify grid perturbation effects early – and to implement countermeasures. Janitza’s certified GridVis software offers all necessary tools for this.

The GridVis reporting system is the heart of the PQ analysis. With this you can identify at a glance whether the power quality in the time period in question is adequate or not. You can also determine the source of the problem with GridVis.

Whilst other manufacturers would like to shackle their customers to their own proprietary systems, Janitza chooses to impress with quality and use open systems.

Janitza is a global, family-owned manufacturer of energy efficiency systems, including digital measurement equipment, universal-measurement devices and power factor controllers made in Germany. Janitza’s solutions help customers increase efficiency and measure, analyse and optimise the quality of their energy flows.

JANITZA WILL HELP YOU MONITOR YOUR POWER QUALITY ON A NEAR-WORLDWIDE SCALE

• With the Janitza product range solutions, you can monitor the power quality per standards EN 50160, EN 610002-4, IEEE519 or ITIC / CBEMA.

ENERGY DATA MANAGEMENT & ENERGY EFFICIENCY (ISO 50001)

From energy purchase through to energy consumption: with our ISO 50001 compliant energy data management systems, you can systematically optimise your energy usage economically and ecologically.

You improve the energy efficiency of your processes, systems and equipment. This decreases operating costs, reduces energy consumption and minimises CO2 emissions.

POWER QUALITY & HIGH SUPPLY RELIABILITY

The voltage waveform in modern grids is far away from the ideal sinusoidal waveform. Voltage drops, transients, harmonics, flicker or start-up currents. Various different ‘grid perturbations’

The

512-PRO

For more information on Janitza’s products and solutions, contact:

David Gilligan, Sales Director IRL, UK & Data Centre Critical Power Segment at Janitza electronics GmbH

1988

Gossage Gossip

Electrical Review has been the voice of the industry since 1872, but there’s one voice that has been stirring up all the gossip since 1988. While we can’t reveal the person behind the infamous Gossage Gossip column, we can share with you some of our favourites throughout the years.

A LOAD OF NONSENSICAL GUFF

It came as absolutely no surprise to me to see a House of Lords committee chaired by the former energy secretary, Lord Wakeham, concluding that worries about climate change were all — to coin a phrase — a load of hot air. Those of my loyal readers with long memories will recall that on this topic, as on many others, this one-time senior Enron director has got what they call ‘form’ as a global warming sceptic.

M’Lord Wakeham was Margaret Thatcher’s last energy secretary. Mostly his job was to prepare the electricity industry for privatisation and specifically to make sure that the Treasury took in as much revenue as possible from the sale.

To that end, the cigar-puffing Wakeham became a regular visitor to the lunchrooms of the City, where, over convivial feasts, he would expound upon what a cast-iron certainty of substantial profit this exercise would be for any broker. The expression ‘fill your boots’ might even have been heard. But one broker had also been listening to Margaret Thatcher, the only trained chemist ever to be prime minister. Perhaps

because of her initial training, Thatcher had become the first world leader to warn of the perils of burning too many fossil fuels — and had pointed the finger at the electricity industry as being the single biggest culprit. The young broker was concerned: if it were necessary for such fuel consumption to be cut back, wouldn’t that rather reduce the potential value of the electricity generators?

Wakeham leant back in his chair. He took a long puff on his cigar: “Surely you don’t believe in that nonsensical guff about global warming, do you?” he drawled.

“That is definitely one for the brown rice and sandals brigade.”

When reminded of his own prime minister’s speeches, Wakeham took another long puff, and then barked, “Good heavens, it will be years before anybody gets round to doing much about that. You can get in and out of ownership 10 times before anything meaningful happens.”

Now chairing House of Lords committees, John Wakeham is still trying to make sure that the commitments he gave to his City friends 15 years ago are valid.

TRUSTY COMPANION

The Energy Saving Trust, the quango that teaches us how to change light bulbs, has hired a new head of public affairs. She comes with an excellent pedigree: time spent at 10 Downing Street, a consultant with the OECD. Just the qualifications to enable her to carry out her main job, of liaising with the trust’s key paymasters in government, who are coughing up £36m this year to fund the quango.

The main person she needs to keep on the right side of is one Jeremy Eppel, who has overall responsibility for all government energy efficiency programmes. The new recruit at the Energy Trust has one other substantial advantage. Her name is Sarah Eppel. And she happens to be Mrs Jeremy Eppel.

LIFEBLOOD OF THE SUNDAYS

Exclusive scoops of leaked confidential papers from within the government are the lifeblood of the Sunday newspapers. It demonstrates clearly that they alone have the sleuth-like skills, and/or the excellent contacts in high places, to be able to reveal the sects of the Great and the Good.

So I must say I was jolly impressed when, the very day after Alan Johnson was appointed as the new secretary of state for Productivity, Energy and Industry (once the humble DTI), The Observer newspaper printed verbatim from an email sent to him in that post. And not any old email - this was 46 paragraphs long and it was written by the most senior civil servant covering energy policy, Joan McNaughton. How very impressive to have got hold of that, I thought. And what an insight this private briefing paper gives us into the thinking of top DTI (whoops, DPEI) mandarins.

I turned to The Sunday Telegraph and there, to my surprise, I found verbatim quotations from the very same email. The Independent on Sunday had the very same story and so did The Sunday Times.

Somebody, it seemed, had been hawking the same ‘scoop’ all round Fleet Street, doubtless telling journalists that the story was exclusive to them. Who could that be, I wondered? As the email had been all about the need to consider whether the government should try to get some nuclear plants built, presumably it was a civil servant with a fondness for the Great God Atom. There must be one or two left, running up to retirement.

One person you can be absolutely sure it will not have been was Joan McNaughton herself. Apart from the natural reticence of civil servants to express personally a ‘controversial’ view in public, there was one person in particular who will most certainly not have appreciated the candour of her briefing, as it was decidedly rude about another cabinet minister. She even described Defra secretary Margaret Beckett as an obstructionist on nuclear power, promoting alternatives that would “damage business competitiveness”. That, I think, won’t make Ms McNaughton’s negotiating position with Ms Beckett particularly easy in future.

HOWARD’S OWN WATERY GRAVE

Michael Howard, the leader of the Conservative Party, was a junior minister in the Thatcher government. In 1988 he was involved in a media stunt, designed to provide reassurance regarding fears about radioactivity discharged from a Magnox dissolution plant being set up at Dungeness. Residents were concerned that the water from the nuclear-waste treatment plant would disperse radioactive waste into the English Channel.

Howard, as the local MP, was duly photographed drinking a glass of the discharged water, which he described as being “rather like diluted Epsom salts”. Was it at all palatable, attendant hacks asked? “I’ve tasted worse,” was his response, while he gratefully accepted a whisky chaser to wash it down.

The event itself received massive publicity and some ribald comments from his parliamentary colleagues. Doubtless it helped inspire Anne Widdecombe’s famous description of him as having “something of the night” about him. Possibly a certain glow?

Anyhow, what has never been previously reported was the immediate aftermath. Within a couple of days of the famous drink of water, Howard’s civil servants had to make a series of telephone calls to all those who anticipated that he would join them for other official visits. The news was stark. “I am afraid Mr Howard will not be with you. He is now indisposed.”

ASK A SILLY QUESTION…

This is true. A journalist asks energy regulator Ofgem chairman Sir John Mogg, “Where do you stand on wind farms?” Answer from Sir John, “Not too close. You might get your head taken off.” Almost as good as the junior minister who claimed there was no commercial future in solar power in the UK, “because we don’t have enough sunny days.

2002

Riello UPS: Celebrating 20 years of proven power protection

The Riello UPS range of standby power solutions spans from 400 VA through to 6.4 MVA

November 2022 isn’t just the 150th anniversary of the first Electrical Review magazine, it also marks another milestone – 20 years of Riello UPS in the UK.

Through its Riello UPS brand, the family-run, Italian-headquartered Riello Elettronica Group was already one of Europe’s leading manufacturers of uninterruptible power supplies by the early 2000s.

But the desire to establish itself in the United Kingdom led to the group’s decision in November 2002 to acquire the UPS and service business of Advance Galatrek (Advance Electronics Ltd).

Over the next two decades, what was initially known as Riello Galatrek Limited – but subsequently became Riello UPS Ltd in 2006 – has grown into one of the country’s most respected power protection providers. Group turnover for the UK now stands at more than £40 million following several successive years of strong growth.

The company moved into its current home, a 27,500 sqft purpose-built facility on Wrexham Industrial Estate in North Wales, in 2009. And it’s from this state-of-the-art base, which has the UK’s biggest stockholding of UPS and spares, where it delivers an end-to-end service of comprehensive technical support and rapid product dispatch.

ALWAYS INNOVATING

Thanks to ongoing technological development both here in the UK and at the firm’s R&D centres in Italy, Riello UPS’ product range has expanded significantly over the years. It now offers 24 high tech solutions for powering everything from the smallest desktop PCs and home entertainment devices to the latest data centre supercomputers and advanced manufacturing equipment.

This evolution incorporates the introduction of the award-winning modular UPS Multi Power in 2015, the super-efficient NextEnergy range in 2017, and the third-generation transformerless Sentryum series in 2019.

CUSTOMERS IN CONTROL

And it’s not just product development where Riello UPS leads the market. One of the main reasons for the business’ continual growth is its commitment to exceptional service by putting customers at the centre of everything it does.

Riello UPS maintenance coverage was already synonymous throughout the industry as the ‘gold standard’, with 100% guaranteed response times, no hidden charges, and contracts tailored to customers’ needs.

But in 2018, the company went one step further with its pioneering ‘Diamond’ coverage, the first in the UK to commit not only to a response time within four hours but a fix within a further eight hours too, no ifs or buts.

The following year Riello UPS again led the way by introducing a five-year extended warranty as standard on all UPS up to and including 3 kVA, going above and beyond the usual one, two, or three-year guarantees available from other manufacturers.

POWERED BY PEOPLE

Like any thriving organisation, Riello UPS’ success is based on the energy, enthusiasm, and expertise of its team, which currently numbers over 70 members, having almost doubled in size over the past decade.

Several of the company’s team members have worked for the business since day one, including Leo Craig, who has overseen operations since 2013, first as General Manager, before becoming Managing Director in 2020. The vast majority of employees have been with the organisation on its journey for at least five to ten years, forming a formidable team with a wealth of experience that delivers the best results for Riello’s customers again and again.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

“Reliable power for a sustainable world” condenses the firm’s philosophy into a few simple words. It has been at the forefront of developing UPS systems with ever-improving efficiency. Riello UPS was actually the first manufacturer to implement ‘Eco Energy Level’ ratings for all products based on efficiency recommendations from the European Commission.

The company is also recognised as a carbon neutral organisation and has eliminated single use plastics throughout the business. All company cars are now electric, while it has also installed 160 solar panels on its office’s roof with a total capacity of 60 kW renewable energy.

It’s been a fantastic journey so far. Here’s to the next 20 years… and beyond!

Interesting facts:

2006 – published 300-page ‘The Power Protection Guide: The Design, Installation and Operation of Uninterruptible Power Supplies’ handbook

2020 – earned Investors in People accreditation 2021 – shipped more than 30,000 UPS 2022 – won ‘Power Product of the Year’ category at the Electrical Review & Data Centre Review Excellence Awards

Riello UPS is a long-standing sponsor of the Ducati MotoGP and World Superbike racing teams

2022 Electrical Review

For 150 years, Electrical Review has been informing readers about the electrical technologies that have the potential to change the world. Over the last few articles, we’ve been able to demonstrate just a few inventions that have changed the world – but there’s no denying that there was a true treasure trove available to us.

When The Telegraphic Journal and Electrical Review was first founded in 1872, the electrical industry would be just a small part of the magazine’s focus. Instead, it would concentrate on the advancements in telegraphy and the ongoing events within that industry. That industry is no longer with us, but as the electrical industry evolved, so too did Electrical Review, dropping The Telegraphic Journal from its name just 19 years after its founding.

As we could only choose just a few topics to write about in depth, we wanted to share some other moments from our history that are still relevant to us today.

1921, ELECTRIC VEHICLES

It’s finally happening – UK consumers are adopting electric vehicles en masse, but 100 years ago, Electrical Review was celebrating a major EV milestone at The City Corporation of Birmingham.

In 1921, Electrical Review wrote, “The City Corporation of Birmingham, it is believed, has one of the finest fleets of electric vehicles in the country, and in the collection and removal of house refuse great economies have been effected by the utilisation of electric vehicles in place of horse-drawn wagons.”

At the time, the article noted how The City Corporation of Birmingham was using electric vehicles to replace the horse-drawn carriages that were responsible for picking up refuse from homes across the city. It found that the electric vehicles were far more effective at collecting refuse, with one electric vehicle capable of visiting 2,116 houses per week, compared to the 816 houses visited per week by a horse-drawn carriage. Additionally, the electric vehicle was travelling double the mileage compared to the horses – who has range anxiety now, eh?

It wasn’t just that they were more efficient at the job either; that efficiency helped with cost savings too. An estimated £250 per year could be saved per electric vehicle vs their equine counterparts.

Of course, while these early electric vehicles had some benefits over horses, they couldn’t compete with combustion engines until their battery technology – which didn’t last very long and needed constant recharging – improved.

1924, ELECTRIC COOKERS

You have likely seen plenty of articles in mainstream media citing the benefits of using an air fryer to reduce electricity consumption in the current cost of living crisis versus an electric oven, and it seems that back in 1924, E. G. Ross, A.I.M.E.E was having a similar conversation in Electrical Review.

Of course, back then, the conversation was more about the potential benefits of an electric cooker versus one powered by gas, but he noted that many who had made the switch to electric were noticing the increase in cost. So, to help households who were struggling with rising costs, he did some research into how to use an electric cooker more efficiently.

During his research he discovered that despite complaints regarding the high expense of using an electric cooker, consumers could actually save money. In fact, he even managed to include the cost of renting an electric cooker into his sums.

Ross noted, “A saving of nearly £4 per annum is thus effected, but it must be borne in mind that in many cases this saving could not be effected, simply because people acquainted with a gas cooker are not necessarily able to use the electric cooker right off just so economically.”

His tips to ensure those savings were, “With regard to the proper use of the cooker, there are some points to be noted. The main thing is to learn to switch off at the correct time. The gas cooker loses much heat by direct loss up the sides of the pot. A similar quantity of heat can be lost with the electric cooker if it is not borne in mind that the firebrick supporting the elements becomes red hot very quickly in use, and if the user switches off after removing the boiling pot, or after the food is cooked, then this heat in the brick will be lost. For example, a pan of water brought to the boil, and the heater kept full on for two minutes thereafter, boiled for 4.5 minutes after switching off.”

It seems that many would be unswayed by Ross’ passionate plea for electric cookers, with gas hobs still popular in the UK to this day, and even the electric oven is facing competition from smaller devices – such as the aforementioned air fryer.

2017, DATA CENTRE REVIEW

There are many more technologies we could highlight from our history, but it’s also important to put a spotlight on the milestones we’ve achieved as a brand. It’s hard to overstate the changes Electrical Review has gone through in the last 150 years, but one of the biggest is the launch of Data Centre Review.

Electrical Review began in 1872 as a small part of the larger Telegraphic Journal, and the brand would grow to supplant its founding industry. Similarly, Data Centre Review would begin life as a supplement within Electrical Review, before launching as a standalone magazine dedicated to the development of the data centre industry.

The magazine has benefited from strong editorial leadership over the years, with Claire Fletcher developing the brand from the ground-up, giving it its own distinct identity, separate from that of Electrical Review. The baton would then be passed onto Kayleigh Hutchins in 2021, who would further improve the editorial focus of the magazine, expanding into topics outside of the power sector, such as data analytics and cybersecurity, as well as launching the brand’s first live event for 2022, dubbed Critical Insight, to much success.

While Data Centre Review will always keep its close association with Electrical Review, we couldn’t be prouder of the bold steps it has taken to establish itself within one of the world’s fastest growing industries.

2021, POWERED ON & POWERED ON LIVE

Electrical Review has also been modernising in the run-up to its 150th Anniversary, further diversifying its offering outside of print. In 2021, the publication launched its first podcast, dubbed Powered On. This gave Electrical Review a brandnew platform in which to engage with its audience, providing commentary on important developments within the electrical industry, while also offering more general discussion.

Then in 2022, as the magazine launched its 150th Anniversary celebration, Electrical Review announced Powered On Live, its very first digital event. Like the Powered On Podcast, Powered On Live enabled in-depth discussions on the important issues facing the electrical industry, with experts from some of the world’s most notable organisations taking part in that discussion.

THE FUTURE?

So, what comes next? Well, Electrical Review will keep developing to meet the needs of the electrical industry. That means we’re continuing to develop our digital platforms to give you the latest news as it happens, as well as thought-provoking commentary from some of the biggest names in the industry.

But, of course, the reality is that Electrical Review (and the world at large) is not the same as it once was. While in 1872 we published just a single issue, that would increase over the years. In fact, did you know that in the early 1900s, Electrical Review would be published every single Friday – more like a newspaper of record than the magazine it has become today.

In 2023, Electrical Review will have just five issues spread throughout the year, although the reduction in the number of issues doesn’t mean you’ll see a reduction in the amount of content from us. In fact, quite the opposite.

Next year, Electrical Review’s general output will grow, as we launch new digital events, including another Powered On Live and the brand-new CPD Week; release more episodes of the Powered On podcast; and put an increased focus on our digital offering. In essence, we’re modernising a 150-year-old institution.

We can’t wait to share everything we have planned, but for now, turn the page to take a peak at both the present and the future of the electrical industry.

Present

It’s safe to say that 2022 has been quite the year. The UK has experienced quite a significant bout of political turmoil over the past 12 months, while the world has been plunged into instability thanks to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The challenges that are facing the world are also directly impacting the electrical industry. The war in Ukraine has contributed to the UK’s energy crisis, which has caused bills to skyrocket and National Grid to warn about the potential for organised blackouts – a first for the UK since the 1970s.

In addition, the struggle to tackle climate change is still a high priority for all those in the electrical industry. There’s still quite a long way to go before the UK achieves net zero emissions, with a target date of 2050, but the industry is working at pace to enable the transition to electric vehicles and renewable energy.

This has all been happening while the UK and the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic. 2022 is the first year since Covid-19 began that we haven’t had a lockdown, but its impact is still being felt by millions of consumers and businesses. From the ongoing supply chain crisis to the financial impact on many of the world’s economies, it’s likely going to be a long road to recovery.

In this section, we’ll explore some of the top stories from 2022, as well as the latest industry gossip and products.

News

Top News from Electrical Review in 2022

Which stories have resonated most with readers on ElectricalReview.co.uk in 2022? We’ve rounded up our top 10 to celebrate our 150th Anniversary, with small snippets from these must-read stories. As always, you can read the full stories along with thousands of others on our website.

10Moto Medway to receive 48 new EV chargers thanks to electrical upgrade

Moto Medway, a motorway service station situated along the M2 near Gillingham, is undergoing an electrical upgrade to make room for new EV charging stations.

UK Power Networks, the local electricity network operator, is upgrading power capacity for new EV charging infrastructure, including GRIDSERVE’s high-power chargers, at the motorway services near J4 of the M2 in Rainham, Kent, as part of its £66 million Green Recovery Fund.

The company is halfway through a project to install 4km of new electrical cabling from a nearby substation to EV charging points located in the car parks of the Moto Medway east and westbound motorway services. The work will enable the connection of a

planned 48 new high-power charge-points (24 westbound and 24 eastbound) to support the growth in electric vehicles, reduce carbon emissions and improve air quality.

The ‘green recovery’ investment is delivering low carbon energy projects that will help achieve the Government’s Ten Point Plan towards Net Zero by 2050.

A total of 86 schemes are being fast-tracked by the electricity company across a range of sites including electric vehicle charging hubs at motorway service stations, fleets of electric buses, community energy schemes and heat pumps.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERmotomed

Rolls-Royce begins search for new nuclear reactor factory

Rolls-Royce has begun its search for a location to build its new nuclear reactor factory, with the company inviting those with suitable sites to bid.

In November 2020, Rolls-Royce announced plans to construct a fleet of 16 small modular reactors (SMR) across the UK, which it noted at the time would help the country achieve its net zero goal by 2050 ‘without breaking the bank’. That’s because the smaller reactors are expected to cost significantly less than the large-scale nuclear power plants the UK Government has so far thrown its weight behind, like those at Sizewell C.

However, the UK Government clearly sees potential in these small reactors, with it awarding a consortium of firms led by Rolls-Royce with £210 million in funding to build the factory that will churn out these nuclear reactors. While the Rolls-Royce-led consortium has yet to decide where to build its factory, it’s clearly eager to hear from site owners. Thus far it has written to the Scottish government and several regional bodies asking them to submit their proposals for the manufacturing site.

8Sweden overtakes France as Europe’s biggest net power exporter

Sweden was the biggest net exporter of power in Europe during the first half of 2022, overtaking France, according to a new report from EnAppSys.

France has long been a major exporter of power in the European market, with a fleet of nuclear power stations generating a stable surplus of electricity. However, that’s beginning to change, with France shifting from a net exporter earlier in the year to a net importer.

This fall from grace for France has, ironically, been blamed on its nuclear power station fleet, which is beginning to show signs of age and unreliability. In fact, the country has found several structural problems at its nuclear power stations, which means it’s had to plug a significant gap in its electricity supply with power generated elsewhere.

With France unlikely to be able to fix its nuclear fleet anytime soon, it’s also unlikely to make it to the top of the net power exporter list anytime soon either. Instead, the top honour goes to Sweden, which exported a total of 16 TWh during the first half of 2022. Most of that power, 7 TWh and 4 TWh, went to neighbours Finland and Denmark, respectively.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERfraswe

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERsmrfactory

Renewables met 100% of global electricity demand growth during the first half of 2022

There is a growing demand for electricity across the world, and in the first half of 2022, renewable energy was capable of meeting 100% of that increase.

As the world moves to electrify everything, whether it’s their means of transport or their heating, demand for electricity is growing at a rapid pace. In fact, according to the Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2022 from Ember, a global energy think tank, there was a 389 TWh increase in the demand for electricity in the first half of 2022 compared to the first half of 2021.

Thankfully, the growing demand for electricity isn’t putting an increasing amount of pressure on our fossil fuel generators, with the growth in renewable generation exceeding the growth in electricity demand.

In fact, according to Ember, while electricity demand increased 389 TWh, the onslaught of renewables coming online in the first half of 2022 meant that generation from solar, wind and hydroelectric grew 416 TWh.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ER100renew

There are already more electric vehicle charging points than there are petrol stations, but it’s still not enough. That’s why the UK Government has announced major new investment to spur the development of even more chargers.

The UK Government has set a target of reaching 300,000 public electric vehicle chargepoints by 2030 – which it notes is equivalent to almost five times the number of fuel pumps currently on the road today. To reach that figure, however, the network will need to increase tenfold.

According to Zap-Map, on March 29 there were 30,345 individual electric vehicle chargers in 19,101 locations. That means almost an additional 270,000 chargers will need to be installed between now and January 1, 2030, which is just 93 short months away.

With just 730 public chargers installed in the last 30 days, at the current pace it will take 346 months to reach the 270,000 additional chargers required – blowing past the Government’s target and landing us in 2050, ironically the target the UK has set for net zero.

In fact, to meet the 2030 goal, nearly 3,000 electric vehicle chargepoints are going to need to be installed between now and 2030. That’s equivalent to the total number of chargers currently installed in Scotland, installed every single month.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERukevnetwork

How the UK’s EV charging network could be about to explode

Legrand acquires UK-based UPS specialist Power Control

Legrand has announced the acquisition of Power Control Ltd, a UK-based specialist in uninterruptible power supplies.

Both Legrand and Power Control have had a close working relationship since 2019, when the two firms announced a strategic partnership. That saw Power Control become the first to offer Legrand’s Trimod HE, Trimod MCS and Keor MOD modular three-phase UPS ranges in the UK.

However, while the partnership was seen as an opportunity for Legrand to bring its UPS technology to the UK, the company is now embarking upon a mission to grow its market share. It believes that an acquisition of Power Control, which already has a strong foundation within the UK UPS market, will help it achieve that aim.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERlegrandpc

The Kickstart Scheme ends March 31, 2022, so what’s next?

The first phase of the Government’s Kickstart Scheme, which aimed to create job opportunities for 16 to 24-year-olds, is set to come to an end.

Announced as part of the UK Government’s Covid-19 recovery plan, the Kickstart Scheme offered cash grants to companies that took on young people who were on Universal Credit and at risk of long-term employment.

All that was required from the companies that offered Kickstart jobs were that they offered a six-month job placement and in return would receive enough money to cover the employee’s pay at national minimum wage for a 25-hour working week, the employer’s National Insurance payments and automatic enrolment contributions.

While the jury is still out on whether the Kickstart Scheme has been a success or not; it is believed that up to 300,000 young people have received a placement through the scheme since it began in August 2021.

The Electrical Distributors’ Association and its partner Cirencester’s Apprenticeship Management Group, which helps run the EDA Apprenticeship Plus, set up Kickstart Support to aid companies they work for in understanding and getting the most from the scheme. However, now with the scheme set to end, the organisations have some advice.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERkickstart

National Grid installs world’s first T-pylons as part of Hinkley Connection

The Hinkley Connection project has achieved a major milestone, after National Grid Energy Transmission (NGET) installed the world’s first T-pylons.

T-pylons are a newly-designed style of overhead electricity lines, boasting a single pole and T-shaped cross arms, which feature suspension diamond insulators – like earrings – which hold the wires, or conductors. These lines have never been installed on a project of this scale before, with the Hinkley Connection project being the first to utilise the design.

A total of 48 of the T-pylons have now been constructed between Bridgwater and Loxton in Somerset and engineers have been putting in place the conductors that will carry the low carbon energy onto the electricity network.

The conductors are transported to site on large drums, weighing up to 7.5 tonnes and 2.5m high. Teams of engineers first pull a steel braided rope between sections of up to 12 T-pylons through circular running blocks suspended from the diamond-shaped insulators. The heavier conductors are then attached to the rope via a rectangular headboard, which is then pulled back through the running blocks using large winches. Engineers control the speed of the winches to guide the conductors into position before they are fixed to the insulators.

T-pylons form part of a suite of technologies and approaches to mitigate visual impact, including alternative lattice pylon designs and different types of underground and subsea cable systems – with each approach chosen where it’s operationally possible and cost efficient for electricity consumers.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERtpylons

Amendment 2 of the 18th Edition agreed, set for March 28

The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and BSI have signed off the content for Amendment 2 to BS 7671:2018 (18th Edition of the IET Wiring Regulations).

Proposals for Amendment 2 were first announced in September 2020, with the industry being able to consult on the changes since then. Following extensive consultation, Amendment 2 is finally set to come into effect.

The IET and BSI have confirmed that the new regulations will come into effect immediately upon publishing on March 28, 2022, with the previous version, BS 7671:2018+A1:2020, to be withdrawn six months later.

Amendment 2 introduces a new requirement for Arc Fault Detection Devices (AFDDs), updated requirements for the fire safety design for buildings and a new chapter on Prosumer’s Low Voltage Electrical Installations.

This essential update to the IET Wiring Regulations will form the national standard to which all new electrical installations and additions, and alterations to existing electrical installations in the UK are to comply. The IET and BSI are now urging all electrical professionals to ensure they become familiar with the changes.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERamend218

VAT scrapped for energy efficiency improvements including solar panels and batteries

Following the failure of the Green Homes Grant scheme, the UK Chancellor is hoping to spearhead a new era of energy efficiency improvements in homes across the UK. It hopes to do that by removing VAT from all energy efficiency improvements, which includes the installation of solar panels and batteries.

Currently the UK Government charges 5% VAT on many energy efficiency improvements as long as the cost of materials does not exceed 60% of the total installation cost. That means most households are currently paying just 5% VAT to install a standard solar array.

However, for those whose projects lead to the cost of materials exceeding 60% of the total installation cost, they would have to pay the standard rate of VAT of 20% for those materials, while only paying 5% for the cost of installation. Those people are likely to see this new measure have a greater impact, as the 60% test has been removed, meaning there is no limit to how much the products cost versus the installation.

In the House of Commons on Wednesday, Rishi Sunak noted that energy efficiency improvements were a great way to reduce household bills during the current energy crisis. That’s why he wanted to reduce the price of these improvements, although not through a scheme like the Green Homes Grant, but by giving these products a direct tax cut.

Read the full story at: bit.ly/ERvatscrap

Gossage Gossip

Chinese Checkers

For years I have expressed serious doubt about whether the third nuclear fission power station at Sizewell on the Suffolk Coast will ever be built.

Yes, I know that the Government has formally declared itself to be in favour, but it only did so by ignoring the official Inquiry Inspector’s decision, that construction must not proceed without receiving firm guarantees regarding the availability of sufficient ordinary water supplies to function. And that, as I have revealed before, is definitely not forthcoming from the local water suppliers, Essex & Suffolk Water.

That water company is part of UK Power Networks, just about the largest electricity distribution company in Britain – which just so happens to be owned by Mr Li-Ka Shing, who also happens to be a close ally of President Xi of China.

Coincidentally, Shing is known to be mightily irritated that Chinese money – 40% of the original construction total of Sizewell C –has now been forbidden at Sizewell by the UK Government on national security grounds

It is now acknowledged that the site owner, Electricité de France, is in

such a perilous financial state that it cannot possibly fund Sizewell C alone, the cost for which seems to have increased by 40% to £27 billion even before any serious construction work has begun.

Special legislation has been pushed through Parliament that will mean that every electricity consumer, big or small, will be forced to pay into EDF’s coffers should any construction ever take place. But even so, that still leaves a hole of nearly £10 billion of investment capital which will need to be found before work can ever get going on this White Elephant manqué.

Earlier this year in May, amidst fanfares of publicity, the Government contracted Barclays Bank to provide ‘financial advice on Sizewell C’. Their role is simply to tap up one or more monied entities that might be prepared to fill the financial hole left by the Chinese Government’s departure.

The finders’ fee for this work is understood to be a cool £50 million per annum. The contract is for an initial two years, with an option to renew for a further 12 months. All of which means that the assumption has to be that it will be summer 2025 before Barclays are under any obligation to report back. In all probability, negatively. And construction will be no further forward.

CCS Scam

For too many years, I have been concerned that the future for carbon capture and storage is nowhere near as rosy as its proponents monotonously continue to claim. The problem is, put crudely, that in almost every circumstance, CCS prototypes are turning out to be far too expensive for them ever to be rolled out for any kind of mass market.

A new survey, undertaken by no less an authority than the Global CCS Institute, has found that the 153 projects in development globally, alongside the 41 others that are already operating or under construction, would together store less than 1% of the CO2 added to the atmosphere just in 2021.

My gut feeling is that the main promoters of CCS, or CCUS as it has been gratuitously renamed, are fossil fuel companies that are convinced

that this chimera alone will permit their fuels to remain viable when the developed world does hit net zero emissions. It doesn’t. And it won’t.

Academic Bias

Like me, do you assume that, if a report is published by a university, its conclusions are trustworthy, and will show no commercial bias? If so, like me, I fear you are now in for a rude awakening.

For those of my devoted readers who for some reason never see that esteemed journal Nature & Climate Change, let me tell you about a study paper that is summarised in the current edition. In essence, it concludes that university departments that receive their primary funding from fossil fuel companies “are more favourable in their reports towards natural gas than towards renewable energy, and tweets are more favourable when they mention funders by name”.

The authors have examined the policy positioning of universitybased energy centres towards natural gas, by conducting sentiment analysis on more than a million sentences in more than 1,700 reports from 26 different universities with faculties covering

British Gas in the Wild West

There are no laws governing the voluntary carbon offsets market, with critics calling it the “wild west of carbon markets” with “poor transparency.” The booming market is now worth more than $1 billion, after tripling in size last year. Each year the annual COP climate change conferences try to bring some

energy policy. The Nature & Climate Change authors conclude that centres with less dependence on fossil funding have a “far more neutral sentiment towards gas,

favouring solar and hydro power.”

In other words, this purity of thought in academia is a total myth. The piper paying still plays all the tunes.

order to this free-for-all chaos. Each year they fail to do so. Enabling unscrupulous companies to get away with making spurious claims to be helping save the planet, when they are doing no such thing.

Right now, British Gas is misleading tens of thousands of customers by

selling them “green energy” that may have little or no environmental benefit. The energy giant claims to be reducing its climate footprint by using “carbon credits,” which pump money into environmental work abroad. But almost half the carbon offsets held by British Gas owner Centrica are “junk credits” that were issued under a discredited Chinese scheme dismissed by the UN as a scam.

These “carbon credits” came from a chemical factory in China that was previously forced to deny “gaming the system,” following an international probe into its supposed green credentials. Records from June this year show that 44% of Centrica’s carbon offsets came from Shandong Dongyue Chemical Co Ltd, which produces a type of greenhouse gas, HFC-23, used in fridges and air conditioning. The UN no longer allows Shandong Dongyue to issue HFC-23 credits, but the Chinese company can still sell old credits that were issued between 2007 and 2013. And they have found a willing purchaser.

C.K Tools lights the way with new head torch

C.K Tools, the trusted choice for trade professionals, has launched a brand-new Wide Field Head Light (T9630) to ensure greater visibility and safety when accessing wires or cables in dark and confined spaces.

The COB LED head light comes with an RRP of £39.00 and four modes of operation – spotlight, wide field, full beam, and dipped beam – providing the versatility needed to suit all manner of environments electricians find themselves in.

More importantly, the head light performs at a high CRI (Colour Rendering Index) rating of 80, which when optimised with a combination of 400 lumens of brightness (equivalent to a 40W LED bulb) and 5,700 kelvins of colour temperature (similar to natural light) means it can more closely project the true colour of the object it is shining on – critical when working with coloured electrical wires in dark spaces.

For extra portability, the head light is charged via USB, with six hours of runtime, three hours of charge time, and a charging indicator. To withstand the variety of environments and spaces it will be used in, the head light also comes with an IK07 impact rating and IP54 ingress protection from limited dust and water spray, for extra durability.

Paul Pugh, Head of Marketing at C.K Tools, said, “What many don’t consider is that the source of light is just as important as the tools being used on the wires – if not more so; it can make the difference in cutting or connecting the right wires.”

Carl Kammerling International • 01758 701070

Find out more: www.carlkammerling.com

Makita pushes performance even further with its new BL4080F 40VMAX 8.0Ah XGT battery

Makita has launched its largest capacity battery to date with an impressive 288Wh of energy.

The 8.0Ah BL4080F offers the longest runtime for its XGT products, meaning less downtime and improved productivity. Especially useful when used on higher drain XGT machines, this new battery pushes performance even harder.

The 40VMax XGT BL4080F 8.0Ah battery has been designed to be both robust and highly intelligent. Equipped with 20 cells, it has a higher power output that enables Makita’s XGT tools to be pushed even harder and perform heavy duty, continuous operation over extended periods.

Thanks to its heavy-duty and durable outer and cell casing, this product has a significantly improved impact resistance. The BL4080F is also IPX4 rated with a water and dust-resistant triple layer structure and an enhanced terminal structure to handle any job site condition.

The battery has been designed with Makita’s digital communication function between the tool, battery and charger to optimise the charging process, reduce charge times and protect the battery from damage. This real-time digital communication actively monitors heat, overload, and over-discharge as well as delivering up to 2X longer sustained power during demanding applications.

Makita UK • 01908 211 678

Find out more: www.makitauk.com

Glorious technicolour with ESP’s new CCTV range

ESP has invested significantly in its growing CCTV and has just announced the launch of a brand-new 24/7 Colour IP CCTV range, which will take its CCTV offering to another level.

The range will sit alongside ESP’s established CCTV offer which comprises the HDView IP PoE 5MP range, designed for larger and more complex commercial projects, and the Rekor IP PoE 2MP range, which is tailored for the domestic market.

There are 18 individual products that make up the new 24/7 Colour CCTV range. This includes 12 cameras offering 2MP, 5MP and 8MP resolutions, with each one available in a choice of dome or bullet camera designs and in a white or grey finish.

There are six different NVRs available in the range, including a four-channel NVR in the Rekor IP collection. The HDView IP PoE range consists of 8MP NVRs with a broad range of channel options available – 4, 8, 12, 16, 32 and 64-channels.

There are also a number of two and four camera kits available in the Rekor IP 24/7 range, with a choice of dome or bullet camera design options and a white or grey finish.

Megger MFT-X1: a new generation of multifunction testers

Combining unique time-saving features with a new intuitive user interface, outstanding versatility and dependable futureproofing, the new Megger MFT-X platform is set to transform the market for multifunction installation testers (MFTs).

Among its numerous innovative features are True Loop impedance testing with patented Confidence Meter technology, user-configurable automated RCD testing, full CertSuite certification software compatibility, support for EV charge point testing, and easy on-site upgrading to meet changes in test requirements or add extra functions.

A large full-colour display, which changes background colour according to the test being performed, makes the MFT-X1 easy and convenient to use, while enhanced Bluetooth connectivity means that results can be easily transferred to mobile phones or tablets running Megger’s CertSuite software, making test certificate completion on site quick and easy.

True Loop is the most advanced earth loop impedance measurement system that Megger has ever developed. Integrating the patented Confidence Meter with the latest 3-wire no-trip loop testing technology, the user is now able to get fast, reliable, accurate and repeatable readings in the harshest of high-noise environments – where previously readings could not be obtained. Additionally, the technology ensures that loop values are immune to ‘RCD uplift’ and will perform tests on circuits protected by RCDs down to 10 mA.

To further save time, a new RCD configurator for auto-sequence testing, ensures only the tests required are completed. EV charge point testing remains straightforward, thanks to a dedicated test and full compatibility with the Megger EVCA charge point adaptor.

Makita adds HR009G 40VMax brushless rotary hammer to its powerful XGT Collection

Adding to its impressive range of cordless tools, Makita UK has launched a new 40VMax XGT Brushless SDS-Plus Rotary Hammer.

Thanks to its combination of innovative design and high output XGT battery, the HR009G provides a genuine solution for high demand industrial applications.

Powered by Makita’s XGT battery system, the new HR009G 40VMax Brushless Rotary Hammer offers an impressive 3.9 joules of impact energy for drilling holes in masonry up to 30mm diameter quickly and efficiently.

Fitted with a quick change SDS Plus Chuck to alternate between SDS Plus and conventional keyless chucks, the HR009G also comes equipped with Makita’s anti-vibration technology (AVT) to significantly reduce the vibration levels and allow for comfortable operation over extended periods.

The HR009G benefits from various features that make the job safe, quick, and easy. It comes with three operating modes – Rotary only, Hammer only, and Rotation with Hammer, to suit a range of high-performance demands. For additional safety, the tool features AWS – Makita’s Auto-start Wireless System to connect with a compatible dust extractor via Bluetooth. The HR009G can also be fitted with the new DX11 Dust Extraction attachment (sold separately).

This heavy-duty tool benefits from a trigger lock function, electric brake and anti-restart function and Makita’s Active Feedback Sensing Technology (AFT) will turn the motor off if the bit rotation is suddenly forced to stop.

Makita UK • 01908 211 678

Find out more: www.makitauk.com

C.K Tools brings convenience to power tool accessories range

C.K Tools, the trusted choice for trade professionals, is bringing an added layer of convenience to its Power Tool Accessory (PTA) range with the launch of a Quick-Change Hole Saw Arbor Set (T3224).

Designed for those who regularly change between hole saws, the Quick-Change Hole Saw Arbor Set enables up to 50% reduction in change times versus a standard Arbor, helping to improve productivity.

The set is multi-faceted and comes with an 8mm black-oxide-coated Hex Shank with a 135° split point HSS-G Pilot bit, as well as an 1/2in 20 UNF adaptor for 14-30mm hole saws, and a 5/8in 18 UNF adaptor for 32-210mm hole saws.

To provide additional flexibility the Quick-Change Hole Saw Arbor Set uses universal fitments so will work with all leading brands of hole saw. Moreover, C.K Tools is also offering the two adaptors in packs of three enabling trade professionals to convert their full range into quick change hole saws, ready for any job.

For over 100 years, C.K Tools has been at the forefront of hand tool manufacturing, producing high quality tools that meet the most demanding needs of trade professionals. The brand’s power tools accessories offering includes its flagship PRO COBALT hole saw range, as well as pilots, mandrels, and extensions, all designed to deliver the best performance in optimum applications.

C.K Tools is available through select major electrical and industrial merchants and wholesalers, as well as Amazon. To find your nearest stockist visit www.ck-tools.com/find-a-stockist.

Future

What is the next big thing? It’s a question that we all have but one that is hard to answer; how do you predict the future? The answer to that question is that you can’t, well not with 100% accuracy anyway, but what we can do is look at the potential technologies that could shape that future.

With the climate change challenge only growing more desperate as time passes, the electrical industry is continuing to innovate to ensure that it can play its part in reducing emissions and keeping the world under 2 degrees of warming. This role has led to some interesting innovations from the industry over the last few years, innovations that are likely to have a huge impact on our future.

While it would be easy for us to prophesize about what the future would hold, we decided that we would turn to the industry to get their insight into what innovations will change the world. So, with that in mind, this section will be dedicated to the experts, who throughout the next nine articles will showcase the technologies that they believe could have a big role to play in our future.

Collaboration

Despite a long history, the electrical industry continues to have large challenges that it needs to solve. In fact, the industry is at the forefront of decarbonising the world to ensure that the impact from climate change is as minimal as possible.

However, to meet the looming challenges ahead, the industry needs to come together – after all, a problem shared is a problem halved.

Morten Weirod, President of ABB Electrification, is a big proponent of collaboration. In this article, he considers whether collaboration is the underplayed criteria in the industry’s carbon neutral mission, and what true collaboration really looks like.

Additionally, he has shared with us some key examples of how powerful a partnership approach can really be, both upstream for power providers and downstream at the point of supply.

Is collaboration as transformative as technological innovation?

When it comes to electrification, the advancement of technologies is critical in the journey towards enabling a low carbon society, but are we focusing too much on products and systems, and overlooking the often-underestimated importance of collaboration?

It’s no secret that those specifying electrical systems are under mounting pressure to secure carbon reductions across their operations. This means monitoring and better managing the supply, distribution and consumption of power, while balancing this with the need to reduce costs. To achieve this, engineers understandably turn to state-of-the-art systems and product solutions designed for energy efficiency and a low carbon society.

As digital technologies become more advanced, delivering on carbon reduction targets is becoming ever more achievable. That said, specifiers often concentrate on product portfolios and cost when choosing a solutions provider, and not enough on whole life performance and cost, and the power of collaboration that is more often than not the true enabler for change.

Optimising the specification of carbon reduction technologies through collaboration

By definition, collaboration means to work with someone to produce something – not a new concept by any means, but one that has been somewhat diluted in recent years online, where teams ‘collaborate’ on workflow management platforms towards a predetermined goal.

The word collaboration is all too often used to describe individuals or teams working in parallel to one another, or completing tasks separately in linear to create one finished result – but is this really true collaboration in the most meaningful sense of the word?

Case study: How Enel and ABB developed the world’s first sustainable 24kV SF6-free ring main unit Showcasing the power of working together, Enel Global Infrastructure & Networks and ABB will achieve reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and provide reliable and sustainable power across Enel’s networks in Italy and Spain, using ABB’s SF6-free Ring Main Units (RMUs) – a solution that was specifically designed for Enel’s requirements.

The power of collaboration is often underestimated and should be considered alongside specifying the most advanced technologies

Gas insulated switchgear, widely used in MV secondary substations, conventionally contain SF6 – which has excellent dielectric and arc extinguishing properties, but at the same time is the world’s most potent greenhouse gas, with a global warming potential 25,200 times that of CO₂ over a 100-year period.

Francesco Amadei, Head of Engineering & Construction, Enel Global Infrastructure and Networks for Enel, explained, “To reach our net zero goals, sustainability must be at the core of our present and future business. For this reason, at Enel we started integrating new principles in all our processes, including sustainable specifications together with technical and economical parameters already in place.

“The collaboration with innovative partners, such as ABB, is key to accelerate the delivery of sustainable grids worldwide, a challenging path that must include all components and assets of the value chain. Innovative solutions like ABB’s SF6-free technology will help us to minimise our global warming impact and support our commitment to the 13th SDG goal – Climate Action. They will also help to make our networks safer and more reliable, ensuring continuity and quality of the electricity supply to our customers.”

and keep their costs as low as possible, without impacting the overall guest experience.”

Adapting existing technology to suit the customer through a process of collaboration, this was the first switchboard in the UK to be designed and built with ABB Ability Energy & Asset Manager integrated. The ABB Ability Energy & Asset Manager optimises energy usage, achieving savings of up to 20% on utility bills and up to 30% on overall operational costs.

Since installation, the technology is already providing the site team and Group with greater visibility and a common dataset on which to base forecasts and decisions about future power requirements. The electrical operations team has found this particularly useful in monitoring real-time power and peak demand, as well as reviewing data on cable size to enable optimisation and manage future power demand and costs.

“This solution puts us in a strong position to extend the model, helping Park Holidays to connect our other UK locations,” added Warrick Brew, Park Holidays Electrical Operations Manager.

“We are also exploring the potential to integrate other facilities management data onto the ABB Ability platform as we believe that the Energy & Asset Manager can help us to meet our sustainability commitments and achieve further cost savings across our estate.”

Choosing collaboration to drive change

When it comes to progressing towards a low carbon society, a more accurate definition of collaboration is the power of together we are seeing throughout our customer interactions. This is where professionals and teams across the globe are jointly developing innovative solutions to real-world challenges. And this is why it matters. Because with true collaboration, real-world challenges can be overcome, benefitting society and the planet.

Case study: How Park Holidays and ABB delivered scalable energy savings

Proving that collaboration is just as powerful downstream, Park Holidays, one of the UK’s largest holiday park operators, has optimised energy usage across one prime location and opened the door for further sites and a broader sustainability focus.

Park Holidays has 42 sites across the country, serving the fast-growing ‘staycation’ market. With staycations in the UK set to grow from £21 billion in 2013 to £57 billion by 2025, the company is responding with a strategic programme of expansion and upgrades to accommodation, catering, sport and entertainment facilities. However, remote visibility of its assets and energy consumption posed a challenge to the Group.

At Park Holiday’s Carlton Meres holiday park on the Suffolk coast, the installation of a new low voltage (LV) distribution board provided an opportunity to collaboratively reassess its requirements and introduce a more digitally connected approach. With the site maintenance team pressing for more power at site level and Group personnel unable to access real time data on the park’s energy consumption, current and other parameters, the need for data acquisition and connectivity was clear.

“With the increasing pressure on energy pricing in the UK, Park Holidays wanted greater real-time visibility and insight on how their assets were performing,” commented Reeve Carter, National Sales Manager UK from ABB.

“The solution we installed does just that; it gives the team insight and knowledge that will help them to save as much energy as they can

The beauty of true collaboration comes when we can dig below the surface and really understand the drivers and intricacies of a challenge. For example, rather than simply stating that a customer needs to reduce energy consumption and costs, true collaboration allows us to discover why and how they consume energy, precisely how we can reduce it without affecting processes and outputs, and most importantly, how much we can reduce their consumption by. Without collaboration, engineers cannot always be certain that they are optimising the systems they are specifying or achieving the best possible results.

In other words, only through collaboration can we understand the wider context of the challenge, develop the right holistic solution, and then support it with the system knowledge, training and ongoing service that will enable operators to continually optimise performance in a changing energy landscape. To achieve this, collaboration cannot start at the point of ordering and stop once new technologies have been installed. Collaboration is the forging of ongoing relationships that achieve not just the initial objective but overcome the subsequent challenges that make energy reduction a permanent shift change in reality and mindset.

The journey towards carbon reduction and a more sustainable electrical distribution sector will be different for each organisation throughout the value chain, but the notion remains the same. The power of collaboration is often underestimated and should be considered alongside specifying the most advanced technologies. The right collaborative partner can support in overcoming energy efficiency and sustainability challenges at a deeper level, and ultimately deliver more tangible results.

A more accurate definition of collaboration is the power of together we are seeing throughout our customer interactions

Easy upskilling with the inaugural CPD Week

The electrical industry is constantly evolving as new standards and technologies are released on a regular basis, meaning that those within the industry need to ensure that their skills are keeping pace with these developments. Thankfully, throughout the years Continuing Professional Development, also known as CPD, has been a mainstay of the electrical industry, ensuring the UK has some of the highest standards around.

While there are countless CPD courses to choose from, we want to simplify things for the readers of Electrical Review, and offer our readers a range of CPD certified training videos to watch over the course of a week.

Not only will these videos give our readers the opportunity to learn but attendees will earn the all-important CPD points for each session they attend. There will also be the opportunity for attendees to submit questions to the companies running the training.

Join us for this special CPD Week, taking place February 27 - March 3, 2023.

www.cpdweek.co.uk

In association with

Electric Drive Systems

The UK is set to ban new fossil fuel cars by 2030, with the country looking to electric vehicles to satisfy its transportation needs in the future. However, while electric vehicles have been around for more than 100 years, it is recent development in batteries and electric drive systems that have made them a viable solution going forward.

It’s hard to argue against the importance of the combustion engine in the development of humanity up until this point, but going forward, electric motors are going to be in the driving seat – quite literally.

Martin Boughtwood of DG Innovate, a leader in the development of new electric motor technologies, discusses progress in electric motor design over the years before bringing the story right up-todate with insights into a radically new motor architecture that offers decisive benefits, especially in electric vehicle applications.

Moving forward with motors

There’s no such thing as a DC motor. If you find that statement surprising, think about it for a moment or two. All motors depend for operation on a rotating magnetic field so, even if a motor is powered from a DC supply, some form of switching must be provided to produce this, which means that the motor cannot be strictly considered as a DC machine. Nevertheless, well into the 20th century motors fed from DC supplies were the workhorses of industry, and the required switching was achieved with brushes and commutators.

As AC supplies became more widespread, wound-rotor synchronous motors took over as the dominant technology, followed by the induction motors that remain ubiquitous in industry today. The main benefit of these machines compared with their predecessors is simplicity. In effect, the ‘switching’ needed to produce a rotating field is an inherent feature of the AC supply. The commutator and brushes, which are costly to produce and require regular maintenance, are no longer necessary.

All that’s needed to make an induction motor rotate is to connect it to a three-phase AC supply. Superficially, this is a very simple arrangement, but it is not without its limitations. There is no control over speed and torque, and, when a stationary motor is connected to the supply, the initial inrush current is very large. While these limitations are acceptable in some applications, in others, such as electric vehicle drive systems, the ability to vary the motor speed and torque are essential.

This led to further development of machines operated from DC supplies, first with wound fields and then with permanent magnet fields. The characteristics of these machines when fed from a DC variable voltage source allow continuous speed control to be achieved. The DC supply for these motors was typically derived from the AC supply network using, in the early days, ignitron and thyratron ‘vacuum’ tube technology.

Developments in semiconductors later allowed the ignitrons and thyratrons to be replaced by solid-state thyristors, making it possible to produce drive systems that were more compact, efficient and reliable. Thyristors were in turn displaced when further semiconductor development led to the introduction of the newer power devices that are widely used today, such as the IGBT, MOSFET and more recently the up-and-coming SiC. With these, further size reductions can be achieved, along with improved control and even greater efficiency.

Parallel development of motor materials saw permanent magnets evolve from ferrite, to alnico to samarium cobalt to neodymium iron boron, with each step providing higher magnetic field strength for a given

All motors depend for operation on a rotating magnetic field so, even if a motor is powered from a DC supply, it’s not strictly a DC motor

size of magnet and improved resistance to demagnetisation. The steels used in the magnetic circuits of the motors also evolved from basic mild steel to silicon steel of various grades, then to cobalt steel and ultimately to amorphous and nanocrystalline niobium-enhanced materials. This progress in magnets and steels has made it possible to reduce motor sizes while increasing efficiency.

interconnected to form a three-point star set. The motors are powered by three-phase inverters fed from batteries in mobile applications and the AC mains, rectified and smoothed, in fixed applications.

This is not the optimum system architecture, however, particularly for electric vehicles, which are set to become the dominant mode of transport – land, sea and air – in the near future. What’s needed here is safe, environmentally-sustainable drive systems with high efficiency. Kilometres per watt-hour will be a critical metric.

From the point of view of safety, three-phase systems in electric vehicle applications have an inherent limitation. Any single failure in the inverter or the motor will stop the vehicle. And, from the point of view of efficiency, three-phase systems involve large system/interconnection inductances, which along with large semiconductor switches, means relatively slow switching and limited efficiency.

The progress described so far in this article brings us to a point that corresponds to the motors typically in use today. An important observation, however, is that these are almost always three-phase machines comprising a number of individual coils distributed around the motor periphery and

The drive systems of tomorrow will address these critical issues by segmenting the motor into multiple segments, each of which will be isolated from the others and powered by its own mini inverter. These small mini inverters can be designed to switch very fast and very efficiently. They can also be manufactured cost effectively in volume using conventional pick-

Tetrataenite, although at an early stage of its development, is a very exciting prospect as a potential replacement for and improvement on neodymium

and-place PCB assembly machines – as there are no physically large and awkward-to-handle power devices that need to be mounted manually.

In operation, the output of each mini inverter is fractionally phase shifted from that of its neighbours, which minimises electromagnetic interference (EMI) and reduces the size of the crucial and normally voluminous DC link capacitor needed. Another crucial benefit is that, because the mini inverters are isolated from each other, a failure in one of them – or the motor segment it is feeding – merely results in a small overall loss of power from the motor which, in every other way, continues to operate normally.

Since they are physically small, the mini inverters can be readily integrated into the motor structure to produce motorised hubs that eliminate the need for high current cables between the motor and the inverter. This not only reduces costs but also saves space and greatly reduces the potential of the drive system for generating EMI.

The motor technology favoured for use in the new segmented drive systems may well be based on enhanced reluctance machines as these require little or no permanent magnets. However, research is also con-

tinuing into magnet materials, and there are now promising alternatives to neodymium, 85% of the world’s known reserves of which are in China. In particular tetrataenite, although at an early stage of its development, is a very exciting prospect as a potential replacement for and improvement on neodymium.

Alongside the developments in the magnetic materials for the motors, niobium-enhanced steels offer huge increases in permeability creating further opportunities for efficiency improvements. This is of particular interest in high performance applications, such as those associated with aircraft.

Motor technology has come a long way since Ferdinand Porsche demonstrated his Electromobile electric vehicle with wheel hub motors at the 1900 Paris Expo. That proved to be a false dawn for electric vehicles, but with today’s new drive technologies based on greatly improved materials, segmented motors and mini inverters, along with the environmental imperative to ditch the polluting internal combustion engine, it can be confidently predicted that this time around, electric vehicles are here to stay.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Alexander Steamaze

Floating wind

The UK Government has promised that every home in the UK will be powered by wind by 2030, but installing more traditional wind farms may not be enough to reach that goal. Thankfully, this is an industry developing at pace, with offshore wind turbines getting larger and attention turning to new floating wind technology – that can be placed further out to sea where the winds are stronger.

How instrumental is the development of new floating wind turbines? Well, according to the International Energy Agency, floating turbines could provide enough electricity to power the US, Europe and Japan.

Sam Strivens, the Carbon Trust’s Floating Wind Senior Manager, shares the assessment that floating wind will be instrumental to the decarbonisation of the electricity sector. In this article, he will detail the development of the technology and what comes next.

The road ahead for floating wind

To reach net zero by 2050 and meet global climate targets, the world needs to scale up renewable energy generation at a rate never seen before. A large chunk of this energy mix will need to come from offshore wind. The UK has been an offshore wind advocate for over a decade. In April 2022, the British Energy Security Strategy set a target of reaching 50GW of offshore wind by 2030. The next big development, needed to help reach this target, is the industrial scale-up of floating offshore wind, which will constitute 5GW of this 50GW target.

Floating offshore wind farms are different from the more established, fixed bottom sites. Instead of turbines attached to monopiles or jacket foundations fixed into the seabed, turbines are placed onto floating platforms and anchored to the seabed via mooring lines. These are best suited to deep waters, where fixed farms are impractical. This technology enables offshore wind to become a power source for countries or regions previously limited by water depth. In the UK alone, this could see commercial scale farms off the coast of the South West of England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Northern North Sea.

The Carbon Trust has been involved with the UK’s offshore wind industry since its inception. In 2016, the Carbon Trust set up the Floating Wind Joint Industry Programme, or Floating Wind JIP. This is a collaborative research and development initiative, bringing together 17 leading international offshore wind developers. The primary objective is to overcome technical challenges and investigate opportunities for the deployment of large-scale commercial floating offshore wind farms. The programme is technology-focused, with a particular emphasis on large-scale deployment, de-risking technology challenges, identifying innovative solutions and cost reduction.

The Floating Wind JIP has so far completed two stages of work. Back in 2016, Stage 1 undertook initial feasibility studies targeting three key topics: policy and regulation, cost sensitivity analysis, and technology risk. Stage 2 undertook more detailed assessments of key technology challenges common to multiple floating wind concepts and supported innovation to develop the solutions needed for deployment of large-scale floating wind arrays. The Floating Wind JIP is currently in Stage 3, which will build on this previous work to accelerate technology development for large-scale commercial deployment of floating wind.

There is a long road ahead to scale floating wind to deliver the kind of energy output targets outlined in the British Energy Security Strategy. But it’s also worth reflecting on how far this technology has come to get

According to the International Energy Agency, floating turbines could provide enough electricity to power the US, Europe and Japan

to where we are now. The first floating wind turbine to scale from a conceptual to operational phase was the Hywind 1 project, off the coast of Norway in 2009. Following this, and after nearly a decade of refinement, in October 2017 Hywind Scotland, the world’s first floating wind farm was commissioned. This site consists of five turbines off the coast of Peterhead in Scotland, each capable of generating 6MW each.

There are currently more than 40 differing floating wind platform concepts under development, and new concepts frequently being announced. Examples of these include the Kincardine and Wind Float Atlantic projects utilising semi-submersible platforms and Hywind Scotland utilising spar-type platforms. Hywind Scotland has achieved the highest average capacity factor of all offshore wind farms in the UK. This demonstrates that floating wind can perform as well as, and better than, bottom-fixed offshore wind.

As the prevalence of wind farms has increased, so has the size and capacity of turbines. For example, the Siemens Gamesa SG 14-236 DD turbine has a 43,500m2 swept area, approximately the size of 6.1 standard football pitches. A single turbine of this type can generate enough electricity annually to power 18,000 European homes for a year. In the next five years, we expect significant technology development in floating wind to reduce cost, scale production, and broaden applicability. Current models suggest floating wind may become cost-competitive with other energy technologies by 2030.

While fixed offshore wind sites have been successful for the UK, floating wind has the potential to offer more.

An estimate in the South West Floating Offshore Wind Opportunity Study by Regen suggested the creation of floating wind farms in the Celtic Sea could potentially create 3,000 jobs and provide £682 million in supply chain opportunities for Wales and Cornwall by 2030. Across the UK more broadly, it is estimated to generate 17,000 jobs and £33.6 billion by 2050. Much of this growth will be in new areas which haven’t benefited from fixed bottom sites.

Floating farms can be deployed in a greater range of sites, meaning the potential export market is vast. In January 2022, Crown Estate Scotland granted 17 offshore wind project leases, covering 2,700 square miles of the seabed. Combined, these farms would create 25GW of capacity, with many applications proposing floating offshore wind farms. With the addition of clearing rounds, this now stands at 20 projects and 27.6 GW of capacity.

Building wind farms themselves is one piece of the puzzle, the next is how we collect this energy and integrate it into existing energy grids. The process begins with turbines converting wind energy into electricity. This flows down to the base of each wind turbine, where a transformer takes the electricity and increases the voltage to array voltage levels. This higher voltage is then transmitted through an array cable system to an offshore substation, which acts as a central connection point for the

There are currently more than 40 differing floating wind platform concepts under development, and new concepts frequently being announced

windfarm. Cables laid along the seabed then export electricity to the shore. This diversity of locations provided by floating sites is also useful because they provide greater stability and security when it comes to energy supply, plus more points of entry to the power grid.

By 2050, as required by climate change targets, most of our energy will come from renewables. For the energy system to function effectively, renewables will need to be integrated in ways which enable consumers to use the energy they generate and allow system operators to maintain reliable and resilient energy networks. This is a considerable challenge. At the Carbon Trust, we are supporting this through our Integrator programme which aims to overcome barriers to offshore wind integration and enable rapid deployment of renewables. Our current focus areas include the provision of electricity system services by offshore wind farms and enabling deployment of Power to X solutions, including green hydrogen. Strategic planning for energy transmission will also be important to lower costs and ensure load centres can manage growing electricity input.

Through a combination of technological improvements, increased investment and government support, the growth of the floating offshore wind industry is extremely promising. The UK is expected to be a leader in this industry, but many European countries are looking to follow suit as a way of expanding and diversifying their energy mix. Growth in floating wind promises to bring economic development, jobs and secure energy supply. But more broadly, floating wind success brings with it hope for reducing emissions, reaching environmental commitments and limiting the most extreme impacts of climate change.

Hydrogen fuel cells

Hydrogen fuel cells were once heralded as the best solution to decarbonise transportation, offering a similar experience to traditional fossil fuels. You simply top up your car with hydrogen, which is then converted to electricity to power the motor on the fly, and can potentially power a car for hundreds of miles.

Of course, the reality is that the industry has moved on from hydrogen fuel cells in favour of battery electric vehicles, which typically don’t need the expensive infrastructure of transporting hydrogen to fuel stations across the UK.

However, while personal vehicles may not be joining the hydrogen fuel cell revolution, that doesn’t mean the technology doesn’t have a bright future. In fact, Roberto Castaldini, Offering Specialist for AC Power at Vertiv in EMEA, has one such area the technology could be revolutionary – helping data centres decarbonise.

Transforming data centres: Fuel cell technology for a greener future

It’s no surprise that data centre providers are investing in sustainable solutions in response to growing demand from customers for long-term solutions to power their IT loads with clean energy. At the same time, many providers are striving to reach the sustainability goals to which they have committed. Businesses and governments around the world are determined to become carbon neutral by 2050 or earlier, which puts data centre sustainability firmly in the spotlight.

Today, hydrogen technology is one of the top sustainability innovations, and one of the most anticipated questions is whether it can be used to power data centres as an alternative form of energy. With this goal in mind, the UK government is even planning national subsidies to boost hydrogen production, and in August 2021 it launched the first-ever vision to kick start a world-leading hydrogen economy, which is set to support over 9,000 UK jobs and unlock £4 billion investment by 2030.

However, the embryonic hydrogen industry has not yet been able to overcome the investment, sustainability and cost issues related to data storage use cases.

The growing urgency for sustainable power alternatives is both driving hydrogen energy solutions for the data centre and incentivising investment. Data centres and IT systems not only require consistent energy continuously, 24/7, but are now very committed to reducing their carbon footprint and therefore are turning towards renewables and looking for alternative sources of energy.

Emerging hydrogen fuel cell technologies are transforming chemical energy from fuel to electricity as they offer backup loads and a reliable and sustainable off-grid or primary power source for combined power and cooling applications, grid and microgrid support.

Fuel cell opportunity

A tech consortium of seven companies chosen by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership – Equinix, InfraPrime, RISE, Snam, SolydEra (former SolidPower), TEC4FUELS and Vertiv – is working to develop a next-generation fuel-cell platform for data centres.

Vertiv is developing a UPS and battery solution to go with solid-oxide fuel cells, which will be used to provide resilient and clean primary power

It is possible to imagine a future in which fuel cells provide data centres with clean primary and secondary power

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / petrmalinak

to data centres. This will invert the current approach of using grid energy as the backup power source. The consortium, called EcoEdge PrimePower (E2P2), aims to implement natural gas solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) as a prime power application to pave the way for the use of green hydrogen for fuel cells for both backup and prime power systems.

SOFCs use a ceramic compound as the electrolyte. They operate at high temperatures (800-900°C /1,472-1,652 F), which eliminates the need for a precious-metal catalyst, but it increases start-up and shutdown times, making them better suited for continuous duty applications. Another benefit is that they are also more flexible when it comes to fuel input because they mainly use natural gas, with some designs able to process pure hydrogen. SOFCs have a high operating efficiency that can be further enhanced by capturing and reusing the heat it produces.

Some forward-looking companies are also considering proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells as backup power sources to substitute diesel generators in data centres. PEM technology uses hydrogen as their fuel source and features a solid polymer electrolyte that brings high power density that enables a smaller footprint when compared to fuel cells. To generate electricity, they require only hydrogen and oxygen from the air, and they operate at relatively low temperatures (up to 80 °C / 176 degrees F). Because they don’t have to heat up to the high temperatures required with SOFC, they can start quickly, making them suitable for backup power

applications. To separate hydrogen’s electrons and protons, PEM fuel cells require a noble-metal catalyst such as platinum, which requires special safety safeguards due to its toxicity.

Although hydrogen fuel cell technology is not new – it has been around since the 1960s and today is produced on an industrial scale for the automotive sector – based on current fuel cell technology and other developments in data centre power environment, it is possible to imagine a future in which fuel cells provide data centres with clean primary and secondary power.

As technology and innovation stand today, PEM fuel cells would provide backup power, whilst SOFCs would be used for primary power. In the event that not all SOFCs are capable of being refurbished to operate with pure hydrogen, PEM fuel cells may be able to provide primary power.

A greener future

Many organisations in the digital infrastructure industry are committed to advancing the sustainability of their operations. Some are leveraging their extensive experience in AC power systems to design and develop an integrated fuel cell power module. For example, Vertiv is already planning to develop standard UPS systems that are capable of interacting with this green technology.

The path to deploying fuel cells as a primary, carbon-free power source for data centre applications is longer than that of backup power applications, largely due to current hydrogen distribution limitations. But there is progress on that front too, and natural gas-powered fuel cells can be used as a stopgap solution. This will reduce emissions and provide other benefits whilst hydrogen distribution is expanded.

The waste product of a pure-hydrogen fuel cell is water vapour, which technically means zero emissions. In the real world, however, emissions are produced in the manufacture of the technology and in the processes, including transportation and storage. Therefore, hydrogen is classified according to how it is produced as the type of production process involves a certain number of emissions.

The many colours or hydrogen Fossil fuel reforming produces brown hydrogen. Likewise, blue hydrogen is produced with fossil fuels, but CO2 is captured during the process and pink hydrogen is produced by using nuclear energy to electrolyse water. Another option is green hydrogen, which is produced by electrolysis of water with electricity generated by renewable sources like solar photovoltaic or wind. The introduction of hydrogen energy into the mix will have the effect of reducing emissions because it reduces the use of fossil fuels whilst using a fuel with much higher energy density.

As of today, there are few applications with a precise and green lifecycle of hydrogen, so it is difficult to have detailed data about its lifecycle. However, we can say that compared to the current situation, the use of hydrogen definitely brings an improvement; in comparison to the current power grid layout, which uses diesel generators as backup and batteries for short-term discharge, hydrogen has few technological rivals when it comes to lower-emission and compact footprint systems.

There are some challenges

When looking at hydrogen as a green energy alternative, there are some considerations/limitations. Hydrogen must be stored under pressure or at very low temperatures, which is expensive. Regulation

Roberto Castaldini, Offering Specialist for AC Power at Vertiv in EMEA

is also an obstacle; other industrial sectors (glass and food production, for instance) already use hydrogen, but a new legal framework is needed, especially for data centres.

Additionally, the near invisibility of hydrogen flames and the possibility of burns pose some safety concerns. Hydrogen, however, despite its known safety hazards, is a safer fuel than gasoline and diesel when handled responsibly. When hydrogen is released, it rises and disperses rapidly, thus reducing the risk of ignition at ground level. Plus, hydrogen is non-toxic (unlike many other fuels).

The use of fuel cells is unlikely to be adopted at a rapid pace due to the challenges mentioned above. There will likely be a steady increase in the use of the technology. In the short term, fuel cell systems might gradually replace diesel generators for back-up power. Then as hydrogen costs decrease (by 2025, the cost of green hydrogen is expected to drop from $6 per kg to $2 per kg as the market grows) and single proof of concepts demonstrate the feasibility of fuel cell based systems, we could see the first primary power applications.

Transportable hydrogen, easy to use and store at a reasonable price are all prerequisites for fuel cell technology to become commercially viable. In an effort to reduce cost constraints in fuel cell technologies, organisations should work closely with different manufacturers and suppliers of fuel cells. Although more investment and research is needed, fuel cells are undoubtedly set to power a long-term clean energy transition for the data centre industry. Indeed, it’s now crucial that a clean, viable power source is found as data consumption grows at an increasing pace.

Looking ahead…

As reported by the International Energy Agency (IEA), data centres con-

stitute approximately 1% of global electricity consumption, and this figure is expected to grow further over the coming years.

With this in mind, it is even more vital to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable future, which can only be achieved through the development of innovative technologies, such as fuel-cell solutions that offer early evidence of providing sustainable electricity for the digital age.

For operators seeking to achieve carbon neutrality, fuel cells are one of the most promising solutions. By utilising clean hydrogen, PEM fuel cells are capable of reducing CO2 emissions from maintenance checks on generators and from operation during power outages. In the near future, commercial fuel cells based on PEM technology are likely to be available in this application.

Hyperscale operators that have taken a leading position on carbon reduction are likely to be the first to utilise fuel cells to replace or supplement diesel generators. Nevertheless, as fuel cells develop, they will become an increasingly attractive solution for a wide range of data centres.

A key component of advancing the use of fuel cells in data centre applications is the delivery of critical infrastructure solutions that enable effective use of fuel cells and support additional functionality, including peak shaving, renewable energy use, and grid balancing services.

The use of fuel cells is unlikely to be adopted at a rapid pace due to a number of challenges

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / r.classen

Internet of Things

When we talk about technology that has been almost ubiquitously adopted by consumers and businesses alike, we may turn to something like the smartphone – after all, everyone has one in their pocket, right? Well, while you may think smartphones have seen widespread adoption, there’s a device category that completely dwarves it, and it’s just getting started.

The Internet of Things, essentially a collection of smart devices, sensors and software, is about to explode in popularity. In fact, while estimates of the number of smartphones in the world range from 3.9 billion to 6.5 billion, it’s estimated that the number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices worldwide will almost triple from 9.7 billion in 2020 to more than 29 billion in 2030.

It’s not surprising to see the Internet of Things gain in popularity, as the data collected by these devices has the possibility to make businesses more efficient, the lives of consumers easier, and be more cost effective than traditional, non-smart solutions.

The IoT market is developing at a rapid pace, however. Damian Lewis, Market Development Manager, Enterprise at Inmarsat, describes why satellite-enabled IoT devices could have an especially large impact on the electrical industry.

Satellite-enabled Internet of Things – the future of the electric industry

In the UK, £13 billion is invested in the energy industry every year, enabling the delivery of power to 28 million homes and businesses across the country and providing jobs for approximately 738,000 people.

Clearly, the industry plays an important role in the economic success of the nation, but it will also play an integral role in the broader transition to a cleaner energy system at a global level over the longer-term.

However, in order to fully reap the rewards of a highly functioning electric network – both financially and environmentally – the industry first needs to overcome a number of challenges.

Barriers to success

Utility firms face various obstacles at present. Some are age-old struggles, such as difficulties stemming from operating in remote, rural locations, while others are newer challenges.

For example, with inflation in the UK reaching a 40-year high in recent months, most businesses across the board are dealing with rapidly increasing operational costs which do not look set to slow any time soon.

More broadly, while advancements in distributed generation techniques and renewable technology present clear benefits for the wider energy transition, businesses are still ironing out some of the kinks in order to fully leverage the opportunity at hand.

For example, many are exploring how to combat increased unpredictability of energy supply as a result of this transition, while others grapple with the complexities of networks with more generation points than before and often based further from the point of consumption. At an individual level, energy firms are also dealing with increased regulatory scrutiny around the sustainability of their practices.

Fortunately, businesses are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of utilising Internet of Things solutions to overcome these challenges and many have already seen the return on investment of such technologies.

According to a recent report, companies that are not currently executing against an Industry 4.0 strategy – including use of Industrial IoT and smart manufacturing solutions – are now in the minority. Almost three quarters (72%) of respondents said they were in the process of implementing such technologies, with many already currently leveraging them.

However, with ever-increasing operational and sustainability pres-

In addition to driving increased operational efficiencies, IoT-based solutions are also proving integral to the transition to renewable energy

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Vladimir Vihrev

sures on businesses at present, more must be done, and quickly, if we are to ensure the efficiency and sustainability of our electric network going forward.

consistent – and sustainable – supply of electricity and minimise network downtime, as well as helping them gain a better understanding of energy use trends via big data analytics. These learnings can then be used to feed into tailored pricing options for customers based on a more detailed understanding of their needs, in addition to enabling predictive maintenance of vital infrastructure and equipment.

IoT solutions are also highly valuable for electric grids based in particularly remote or rural locations, providing monitoring and control of operations that would otherwise be difficult, costly or dangerous to get to, as well as enabling employees to remain connected when in the field, improving safety and productivity as a result.

The many applications of IoT solutions

Internet of Things solutions can be applied across a range of use cases, providing solutions for the various challenges currently facing the energy industry.

For example, IoT-based tools can facilitate 24/7, real-time monitoring of electric distribution and storage networks, as well as enabling remote control of reclosers, switches and other devices in case of voltage fluctuations, power outages or peaks in service demand.

These insights can improve operational efficiencies by helping businesses better respond to consumer supply and demand fluctuations to ensure a

For example, Inmarsat and its recent work with Brazilian utilities giant, Cemig, in the state of Minas Gerais is a prime example of how IoT technology can improve the performance of electrical grids in remote areas. Cemig, the largest integrated electric power company in Brazil, works in partnership with Inmarsat to improve the performance of its grid via a satellite-enabled IoT solution which enables Cemig’s field equipment to send and receive data regardless of its location and always remain connected, even in adverse weather conditions.

In addition to driving increased operational efficiencies, IoT-based solutions are also proving integral to the transition to renewable energy more broadly, playing a key role in our global sustainability journey.

Utility firms must ensure they are depending on reliable, robust connectivity provid- ers to meet their often mission critical IoT needs

For instance, not only do IoT-based solutions provide instant access to robust, granular data insights that improve the transparency of ESG reporting and drive accountability, they also facilitate tangible change through better understanding of the environmental impact of businesses. From IoT-enabled weather monitoring tools to identify the best location for a wind farm to the use of environmental monitoring technologies to prevent wildfires, the possibilities are near endless.

Such tools also encourage more open, transparent data sharing between companies to enable the utilities industry as a whole to benefit from these insights and effect change at a broader level.

The key is in the connectivity

However, while IoT-based solutions can increase operational efficiencies, improve employee health and safety and drive better sustainable outcomes, satellite connectivity is the key to unlocking the full potential of such technologies.

For an industry that is so important to the day-to-day functioning of our lives, not to mention our broader environmental targets, utility firms must ensure they are depending on reliable, robust connectivity providers to meet their often mission critical IoT needs. Security is also key for such critical infrastructure to ensure data can safely be routed through a network of networks.

Many firms look to leverage a hybrid approach, utilising traditional terrestrial networks alongside satellite providers to ensure optimal connectivity and security in a cost efficient manner.

This is where businesses such as Inmarsat come into play, providing high-level connectivity solutions that underpin terrestrial networks to support operations in the remotest of locations and through the most adverse weather conditions.

Inmarsat’s ELERA L-band network, for example, offers ultra-secure, highly reliable and cost-efficient satellite connectivity to companies internationally, providing unique resilience in all conditions with complete global coverage, government-grade security and market-leading 99.9% availability. This, combined with Inmarsat’s privately-owned satellite network managed by cybersecurity experts 24 hours a day, enables utility firms to maintain the highest level of security at all times.

Without this level of connectivity, the sector will struggle to make the most of available IoT solutions to improve operational efficiencies and meet their sustainability targets over the months and years to come.

Ultimately, as an industry so critical to the successful functioning of our day-to-day lives – in addition to the integral role it will play in the broader transition to a greener future – it only makes sense that it is supported by the highest level of robust, reliable and secure connectivity possible.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Blue Planet Studio

Pumped Hydro Energy Storage

The United Kingdom and much of the rest of the world is set to switch en-masse to renewable means of generating electricity. However, while renewables are much better for the environment and a lot more cost effective than burning fossil fuels, they are inherently intermittent – you are quite literally at the mercy of nature. For example, if the wind slows, so does your ability to generate electricity.

Many countries around the world are turning to batteries to store energy and release it back to the grid when there is a lull in generation, but it’s not the only energy storage solution out there. In fact, there’s an energy storage solution that’s been under our noses this whole time – with some of the earliest power stations in the world powered by this very element – water.

The world is now flipping the concept of a hydroelectric dam on its head, with pumped hydro energy storage. Essentially it works by allowing the dam to work in two directions – allowing water to flow through an inverter from the top reservoir to the bottom when power needs to be discharged, and reversing the flow by pumping that same water back up to the top when power needs to be stored.

Sunshine Hydro is one company that has been perfecting the process, with the company showcasing its tech in a country whose electricity grid earned notoriety when Tesla CEO Elon Musk offered to roll-out Megapack battery energy storage to try and stabilise it.

How Sunshine Hydro hopes to change the future

Our society is built on electricity. According to the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences, coal supplies the majority of Australia’s electricity. A similar scenario is playing out all over the world.

We are all aware that coal-fired electricity is on borrowed time. The question is, how do we replace it consistently? With the closure of Australia’s largest coal-fired power station, Eraring, expected by mid-2025, and the relocation of another coal-fired power station, Loy Yang A, from 2035 to 2045, finding an answer to that question is now critical for Australians.

A major failure at Callide C4, one of Queensland’s largest coal-fired power stations, resulted in the loss of 2300 MW from the National Electricity Market (NEM) in May 2021, causing a price increase of more than 60% across four states. The Australian Financial Review reported a year later, on May 10, 2022, that more than 30% of Australia’s coal power capacity was offline “as the country’s ageing infrastructure requires regular maintenance and suffers unplanned outages.”

Sunshine Hydro’s Superhybrid renewables ecosystem is the result of six years of research and development and now provides a timely solution with its ability to generate firm green energy – 24/7 and 365 days per year – even when wind and solar activity is low.

A Superhybrid is a type of renewable energy power plant. To generate green energy, the model integrates multiple technologies such as wind, solar, and deep storage via pumped hydro. A typical Superhybrid can store 10 gigatonnes of energy, enough to power 600,000 homes for one day.

A Superhybrid generates green hydrogen in addition to green energy, providing additional investment in the future that is renewable energy. A typical Superhybrid can generate approximately 70 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, which is enough to decarbonise approximately 1000 long-distance heavy vehicles.

Sunshine Hydro’s proprietary artificial intelligence innovation, AESOP (Advanced Energy Storage Optimising Program), serves as a green asset performance management tool to manage the internal processes of these multiple technology inputs and outputs.

It can choose the best energy inputs and manage pumped hydro storage to meet contracted demand for green energy and green hydrogen while ‘keeping the lights on’ for industries and users who rely on a steady supply of green energy.

AESOP ensures that every electron generated is optimised and used to its full potential, taking into account physical environmental factors and contractual energy supply agreements. The program reassesses this and recalibrates, or re-optimises, the entire system on a five-minute cycle.

AESOP ensures that every electron generated is optimised and used to its full potential

AESOP improves financial performance by optimising operational performance. This means that private projects that are waiting for government funding have a better chance of attracting private investment and starting sooner. Sunshine Hydro is positively disrupting the industry in this way because there are no losers. Existing pumped hydro facilities around the world are viewed as contenders to improve their performance through AESOP rather than competitors.

According to Michael Myer, Chairperson of Sunshine Hydro, “The combination of long-duration pumped hydro combined with the fast-acting response of PEM [proton exchange membrane] electrolyzers can provide grid services second to none.

“Even though renewable energy sources are variable, our proprietary software AESOP ensures that these services are available around the clock, every day of the year. Our contracted green energy will put downward pressure on electricity prices for the benefit of Queensland households, and AESOP helps deliver multiple robust revenue streams for investors.”

Sunshine Hydro begun construction on a $2.4 billion Superhybrid hydropower project near Miriam Vale within the Central Queensland Re-

newable Energy Zone in early May 2022, dubbed Djandori gung-I, which broadly translates to Spirit in the Water.

Djandori gung-I will provide reliable power to the grid while also producing green hydrogen, saving an estimated 4 million tonnes of carbon per year, or 2.5% of Queensland’s current annual carbon emissions.

The continued use of fossil fuels comes at a cost to our environment by exacerbating the effects of climate change. To acknowledge an unsustainable cycle of energy production and consumption, we need an affordable, dependable alternative. Sunshine Hydro was built from the ground up with the express purpose of meeting this pressing need.

A typical Superhybrid can store 10 gigatonnes of energy, enough to power 600,000 homes for one day

Virtual Event 14 & 15 June 2023

With the electrical industry going through one of the biggest transitions in its entire history, Powered On Live will feature two days of in-depth presentations and panel discussions with industry leaders on the important topics that are on everyone’s minds.

Whether it’s the momentous work that will need to be done to achieve net zero, or dealing with modern-day threats to the continuity of power, whether due to cyberattacks or extreme weather events, there is bound to be a topic for everyone.

Those who register will be able to join in live and ask questions, but also watch all session recordings afterwards.

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Speaker picture and bio on the website

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A 25 min speaking slot with Q&A on either Day 1 or Day 2 in the afternoon

Logos on all our marketing material throughout the campaign – website, social media, emails

Full delegate list of all registrations for both days after the event (GDPR Compliant)

Speaker picture and bio on the website

For more information, visit poweredonlive.co.uk

Smart Distribution

It’s easy to talk about the UK’s grid on a country-wide basis, as National Grid is by far the most recognisable part of our energy system. However, the distribution network operators that work on a local basis have an equal sized role in ensuring businesses and homes across the country remain connected to that larger, national grid.

There are six distinct distribution network operators in Great Britain, ranging from UK Power Networks in the South East to Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks in the very north of Scotland. Their role is to deliver electricity to endusers in their respective areas, as well as ensuring that local infrastructure is capable of accepting new connections.

Those new rapid EV chargers that are being installed at your local supermarket? It’s the responsibility of the DNO to ensure that the local grid has the capacity to accept them – therefore, they’re an essential piece of the puzzle when it comes to decarbonisation.

But their responsibilities are constantly evolving, and they’re constantly on the cutting-edge of grid technology. Paul Jewell, Systems Development Manager, and Jonathan Berry, Data & Digitalisation Manager at National Grid Electricity Distribution, formerly Western Power Distribution, explains more.

How DNOs are keeping pace with decarbonisation efforts

Distribution network operators’ (DNO) work has changed a great deal over the decades. Responding to the changing regulatory framework and the new challenges of climate change, the role and responsibilities of DNOs have evolved over time as new technologies have come onstream.

Network operators are not only relied upon for keeping the lights on in the homes, businesses and communities they serve, but are now increasingly essential to other vital services and infrastructure, including powering domestic heating, keeping vehicles on the road, and connecting distributed generation in dynamic new ways that were inconceivable in previous decades.

Rather than just transporting power from conventional forms of generation, such as gas or coal power stations, we now operate a multi-directional energy system, delivering power from dispersed, renewable wind and solar farms as efficiently as centralised base load generators to power technologies like heat pumps and EV chargers in homes and businesses across the country.

While the energy landscape may be different now compared to the days when the old regional electricity boards delivered electricity, at National Grid our dedication to serving our nearly 8 million customers in our DNO business remains constant, while rapidly evolving our methods and technologies used to deliver power.

At National Grid, we are well aware of the rate of change within the energy industry. Not only has our role developed but our brand and identity has evolved over time. Following our acquisition by National Grid Group, Western Power Distribution became National Grid Electricity Distribution, or National Grid for short. But while we have a new name, our commitment to innovation and transforming the way in which we deliver electricity to our customers remains the same.

Delivering the decarbonisation of homes and vehicles through network changes

Innovation has always been at the heart of our company. Our industry leading innovation team has worked to facilitate innovative electric vehicle charging solutions – including vehicle to grid technologies and wireless charging – while our network flexibility team has performed revolutionary work rolling out more efficient and dynamic flexible connections to homes and businesses.

These innovations have made a material difference to our customers’ experience while unlocking speed and efficiency in our connections and network design offerings. But as we look to the future, National Grid is continuing to pioneer a range of new technologies and approaches with the potential to make net zero more achievable, affordable, and rapid for our customers.

We have been working on two changes in electricity network design which will provide electrical capacity for customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way. The electricity network needs to be ready to accept

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / Diyana Dimitrova

additional demands as more and more of us look to connect low carbon technologies. At National Grid we build networks with a 50-year lifespan, so we are taking steps now to ensure that we build the right network to meet the demands of both our current and future customers.

The first change, one we made a few years ago, is the introduction of three-phase cabling as the minimum gold-standard for domestic connections. In the past three-phase cabling was usually only made available for industrial and commercial customers with higher electricity demands. Domestic customers were typically connected to a single phase, allowing for less power use in the average home, limiting how its load can be distributed. We now allow new domestic properties to connect to all three phases as standard, delivering a more flexible connection while aiming for a similar three phase approach when upgrading the supply of electricity to existing customers.

By upgrading the electricity supply by making three phase cabling as standard in domestic settings, we are facilitating the greater adoption of domestic solar, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers by households across our network. Ultimately it is through network adjustments like this that the UK will reach net zero. When we work on our network, we want to touch once for 2050 and leave our customers with a connection that is fit for their future needs.

The coming influx of electric vehicles onto the UK’s roads will pose challenges to the energy industry. With the Government aiming for all motorway services to have at least six rapid chargers by the end of 2023 and wanting to see 6,000 high powered charge points on England’s motorways by 2035, there is an urgent need for service stations and all locations where EV chargers may be located to have the electrical capacity required for the large-scale installation of EV chargers. Our modelling work shows that most motorway service stations require the level of demand we would traditionally have allocated for a small town.

At National Grid we have invested over £1 million in conjunction with motorway services provider Moto, to design, test, and trial new technology to deliver the large electrical capacity required for rapid EV chargers to be installed at UK service stations at low cost and in a more compact solution. The Take Charge innovation project shrinks the solution to provide locations with the high levels of demand they need, helping to assist sites with the connection of high-powered low carbon technologies.

Our approach utilises a standardised, pre-constructed and pre-packaged ‘one size fits all’ solution that will provide 12,000kW capacity – the equivalent of powering 10,000 conventional homes – to enable large-scale, high-power, rapid EV charging at service stations. Importantly, it will cater for the projected levels of demand from increased EV uptake at these locations. Our solution also involves far less disruption for operators and customers than current methods which require complex traditional forms of electrical infrastructure and take up a significant amount of space. Instead, we are developing a ‘plug and play’ solution which delivers capacity for 80 rapid chargers per site.

We estimate that use of the Take Charge solution will save service stations almost half a million pounds for each site installation, compared to current methods. That means wider savings of approximately £33.3 million if it rolled out across just 75% of all existing service stations across the country. The trial in Exeter is now complete and we are exploring the possibility of rolling out the technology to other service station locations across National Grid’s network. We are sharing our learning with other UK DNOs to offer this as a UK-wide solution. This solution has the poten-

tial to not only accelerate decarbonisation of motorway service stations, but also reduce the emissions from UK ports, airports and other locations where significant decarbonisation demands will be seen.

Using data to improve customer experiences

But while there are obvious network and asset changes that will help deliver net zero, there are other pioneering innovations that will revolutionise how customers interact with the energy network, resulting in a more efficient and resilient experience. The use of network data is one such area.

For years, the creation and utilisation of network and energy data was kept within the virtual four walls of each business, hindering the progress of our energy system and true collaboration at a whole system level. Network operators have often fallen behind by other industries that have paved the way in harnessing data efficiently. At National Grid we have committed to a ‘data first’ mindset and a key part of this is our Open Data activity stream.

To fully harness the potential of energy data, collaborative working is needed. All parts of the energy system, be it operators, community energy groups, suppliers or Government need to work together in delivering net zero. Making network data available to a wider audience is key to achieving this collaborative method of working. At National Grid we have opened up large sections of our network data, making it accessible to these key stakeholders. This will help create an inclusive energy data community, where together all parts of the sector pool our resources to find solutions for customers and stakeholders that support the net zero transition.

An example of this in practice is how our network data is helping Octopus accelerate the development of onshore wind energy in the UK. The retailer’s ‘Winder’ app provides a platform for individuals to place requests for wind turbines in their communities and matches said applications with available land, wind data and grid capacity in order to find appropriate locations. Octopus says that localities that have voiced support through the app for onshore turbines could provide 2.3GW of clean electricity for 1.85 million homes. The app has integrated openly available data from National Grid through its application programming interface. This use of our network data is just one example of how taking an open approach to data provides greater collaboration opportunities for energy stakeholders and can help accelerate next zero for customers.

Over the next price control period, there is no doubt that the energy landscape will change even further. At National Grid our role is to anticipate the change in both technology and customer behaviour and prepare the network as appropriate. We will do this through both making network changes and making greater use of our network data and sharing openly and extensively to help stakeholders accelerate the pace of their net zero journey.

By upgrading the electricity supply by making three phase cabling as standard in domestic settings, we are facilitating the greater adoption of domestic solar, heat pumps and electric vehicle chargers

Smart grid

Nearly 90 years since its formation, the national grid has been keeping pace with new technologies to ensure that it can serve the UK public’s ever-increasing hunger for electricity. But while balancing the grid has long been the job of humans in control rooms, those engineers are increasingly taking a back seat. In fact, artificial intelligence and smart grid technology are starting to unlock more capacity than ever before, with the National Grid’s SmartValves initiative unlocking an extra 1.5GW of capacity alone, enough to power 1 million homes with renewable energy.

The interesting thing about SmartValves is that they can be operated either autonomously or by humans, which is leading many to think that one day our entire electricity grid could be run completely autonomously too.

Gavin Doyle, a Senior Consultant on Technology Strategy at Cambridge Consultants, is one such person who believes that autonomous electricity grids could be in our future, as he explains.

Valuable opportunity sits on the horizon for the autonomous electricity grid

The notion that the electricity grid should be controlled completely autonomously – that is without any significant human control – currently sits quite high on the scale of implausibility. But stay with me. I contend that the increasing operational instability and cost of the grid may well make autonomy a requirement of the future. The necessary technological approaches might be in their infancy in infrastructure terms but make no mistake: significant opportunity lies just beyond the horizon.

In this article, I want to explore the opportunities and technical challenges associated with the autonomous electrical power grid and unpack what I deem to be the three key enablers of such an advance, which are automation (naturally), decentralisation and data connectivity. But let’s start with the current lie of the land.

With the electricity grid becoming more unstable and expensive to operate, new market structures and mass participation in grid planning and control are becoming key problem-solving tools. But this direction of travel means that the complexity of the future system will be beyond the capability of today’s centralised methods. An autonomous, decentralised approach could solve this, but there are a number of unique challenges that must be addressed.

Today, all electricity grids operate by balancing energy used with energy generated in real-time. Grids were originally designed as top-down systems with central energy sources connected to a transmission network, which in turn feeds many regional distribution networks that deliver electrical energy to homes and businesses. The electricity grid is now changing, with more renewable energy generation and storage being connected to the distribution network either directly from large wind and solar farms or through distributed resources in homes and businesses.

Constraint costs and balancing services

This evolving grid architecture requires more effort to maintain the balance between generation and demand, which is reflected in higher system balancing costs. These costs ultimately get passed onto consumers in their bills. The dynamics at play here involve constraint costs and balancing services. The former is where too much energy is being generated for the grid to handle, so generators are paid to disconnect from the grid, which is not only expensive but wasteful as the energy is often 100% renewable low carbon energy. The latter – balancing services – is where the planned generation and predicted demand do not match reality, so extra generation or reduced demand has to be procured and dispatched in real-time, normally at higher cost. All this means that the future grid requires a new mechanism to optimise the dispatch of energy to reduce these costs.

So where are we heading? In short, towards nodal pricing, which replaces a single electricity price across the whole grid area with lots

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / urbans

of energy prices depending on location. We’re already seeing this infrastructure being used in the United States, New Zealand, Canada and Singapore.

A nodal grid provides a local price signal to the market, influencing investment and operational decisions on where energy generation or storage should be added and dispatched, and if and when energy should be used at all. Centralised algorithms are used to determine how to supply the required energy in a more efficient way. This ensures that resources are in the right place and are dispatched in the right way to avoid balancing costs and wasteful curtailment. The pricing zones are however limited to where energy enters and exits the transmission grid and still relies on manual monitoring and central control to ensure supply and demand are balanced in real-time.

While this would be a significant step forward for today’s mix of electricity generation and storage, smoothing the supply demand challenges, this approach must evolve further for the grid of the future to meet its potential. A more ambitious goal would be the complete removal of the need to balance or curtail the grid by optimising the level of supply, storage and demand in real-time so that unplanned energy dispatch or curtailment of resources is minimised. In other words, an autonomous energy grid that matches supply and demand without central control or planning.

This would offer significant benefits including, but not limited to:

• Generators – more predictable long-term investment planning; new opportunities for higher ROI in areas that require generation or becoming aggregators of distributed energy resources; reduced network usage and balancing charges

• Distribution System Operators (DSO) – less variable demand on system, reducing investment required due to the increase in overall electricity use

• Transmission System Operators (TSO) – as per DSO, plus less balancing/curtailment effort required, and hence lower costs incurred

• Suppliers – new opportunities to provide home energy management, peer-to-peer energy/flexibility trading and carbon/energy emissions tracking services; reduced network usage and balancing charges

• Consumers – lower bills, more resilient system and potential to get a better return on distributed energy resources and demand response

• All – lower CO2 emissions, less energy waste, more stable system

The autonomous promised land

So how do we get to this future autonomous promised land? For an autonomous grid to work, mass participation in the energy grid operation is required, meaning businesses or domestic consumers would be able to freely trade their power generation, storage or demand. This would result in a much more resilient and lower cost grid.

The combination of distributed energy resources, nodal pricing and mass participation in providing services to the grid (not to mention the need to track CO2 and energy use) will result in the grid becoming too complex to control with an automated centralised system – so an autonomous decentralised approach may be inevitable. This is because of the unique combination of requirements to:

• Have a trusted record (an account) of what energy was used, where it came from, what its associated carbon emissions are, who used it and for what purpose

• Provide a mechanism to connect generators, operators, and users without needing to trust them

• Ensure engagement in the system, by removing as many barriers to participation as possible

This particular combination of needs is a strong use case for a decentralised architecture, using Web3 technology for example. This would enable consumers and businesses to participate in markets for generation, storage, and demand response, which could potentially automate the control of the electricity grid.

The key challenges and approaches necessary for a grid to become autonomous and decentralised Optimisation algorithms. The question here is this: how can grid optimisation algorithms securely access the data they need from millions of devices across many organisations and locations and then resolve the optimal system configuration on a second-by-second basis? The answer could be through the creation of a federated data space for the energy grid and a decentralised autonomous approach, splitting the grids up into many smaller self-optimising areas.

Asset registration. How can we allow for the safe registration of untrusted assets onto the system? Through a decentralised identification system. In it, a public key for each ID could be stored on a suitable blockchain enabling trusted organisations and services to securely interact with it, providing credentials and interrogating the device’s status.

Privacy. How can consumers’ sensitive energy-use data be protected? With the use of privacy-enhancing technologies such as zero-knowledge proofs, homomorphic encryption, compute-to-data or federated learning.

Transaction settlement. Is transaction settlement between millions of devices per second possible? Yes, by dividing the grid into small subunits combined with a decentralised transaction record mechanism like a distributed ledger.

Energy and carbon tracking. How can energy use and associated carbon intensity be tracked most effectively in this architecture? Through the tokenisation of energy and recording of energy token transactions in a suitable distributed ledger environment.

Connectivity and data storage/compute infrastructure. How can the communications infrastructure provide the required level of service with all devices? By making use of existing smart metering comms systems in homes and the many different types of IoT connectivity for grid operators and businesses. Compute and data storage could also be provided at the edge of the network where service requirements demand.

Data connectivity, decentralisation and automation

As I said at the outset, the themes of data connectivity, decentralisation and automation emerge from our proposed approach to resolving the key challenges in creating an autonomous decentralised grid. Each of these are key enablers for the future grid, which themselves present significant technical challenges such as:

• Data connectivity – federated data spaces, compute-to-data and privacy-enhancing technology

• Decentralisation – distributed ledgers, tokenisation and decentralised apps (dApps)

• Automation – smart contracts, building the industrial metaverse and AI algorithm training

These technologies are immature in critical infrastructure and will require significant research and development, design, proof of concept validation and implementation effort to successfully realise. The good news is that there is a growing effort to undertake this research and develop these proof-of-concept systems.

Vehicle to Grid

Consumers in the UK are overwhelmingly adopting electric vehicles, which is great news for the environment. However, this influx of electric vehicles may not be the best news for the grid, although that doesn’t mean it can’t be.

National Grid is fully aware that demand for electricity is increasing, while the predictability of that demand is decreasing. After all, it’s easy to predict everyone will put on the kettle at half time during a major football match, but people could choose to charge their electric vehicles at any point of the day.

Match that increasing difficulty to predict demand with the fact that supply is also becoming much less reliable and you have a storm in a teacup.

Thankfully, electric vehicles, which are a big driver of this increasingly erratic demand, could also be the solution to helping plug the gap in energy generation. That’s thanks to their ability to act as a means of balancing the grid through Vehicle to Grid technology.

To explain more about the contribution this technology could make to a more robust energy grid, the experts at Charles River Associates (CRA) weigh in.

Vehicle-to-Grid: The solution to our energy problem?

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G), a technology that has the power to transform our energy systems, remains highly promising in helping to combat the challenges of the energy transition, enabling power systems to cope with the additional load from charging EVs whilst also facilitating the integration of intermittent renewables into the system.

In essence, bi-directional smart charging (V2G) can enable energy flows that supply power directly into the grid as needed. Managed by a sophisticated energy management system (e.g., third-party service provider), it provides energy supply and ancillary services (for example, frequency response) to the grid and enables consumers to earn a source of income.

V2G can offer opportunities not seen before and can be broken down to the various participants.

Cost savings and revenue opportunities

By allowing their vehicle to respond to demand reduction signals (V1G) or at times go ‘off-grid’ (V2H/B), EV owners will benefit from dynamic pricing tariffs meaning the energy they consume will be at non-peak times at a reduced rate.

The V2H/B concept also becomes more lucrative for the EV owner if they were to pair it with a self-generation asset such as rooftop solar PV. Beyond the savings achieved, they could also benefit from additional revenue by providing supply-side services back to the grid in times of supply shortages i.e., being paid for discharging their EV back into the grid (V2G). Energy suppliers can play a key role in articulating these benefits to their customers.

Additionally, fleet owners with last-mile vans, long-haul trucks or intercity buses have similar financial opportunities to those of a consumer with optimised smart control of their EVs’ charge and discharge. However, their opportunity is greater given the larger aggregated capacity as a micro-grid. They have the possibility to self-generate (for example through solar PV) in parallel and could, in turn, participate in energy arbitrage markets through trading their stored energy or participating in balancing markets by means of a virtual power plant. Like other participants, these opportunities are somewhat dependent on software, hardware and regulation developments, and fleet owners would need to obtain access to energy markets.

Automotive OEMs can also tap into new revenue pools through business model innovation and extensions. Firstly, they can size batteries based on consumer demands, for example a customer wanting their EV to be V2G and V2H ready, would require a large bi-directional battery, which could be priced at a premium, as opposed to a consumer who only plans to use their EV for transportation.

Other opportunities such as Battery as a Service (BaaS) or battery swapping business models could emerge, in essence charging a premium to remove battery responsibility from the consumer.

OEMs will also have access to more data (e.g., GPS, telematics, Battery

Image credit: Shutterstock.com / DigitalPen

KPIs) that could be sold to other ecosystem participants. They will also have a higher willingness to pay for batteries driven by the incremental efficiency value of using the battery for transportation and grid services. This could help OEMs improve the resiliency of their battery supply chain compared to generators with lower willingness to pay for batteries for storage only.

However, securing the batteries is just the first step, OEMs will need to continue to test and improve battery efficiency to ensure that that they can deal with the additional load drawdowns from participating in V2G, for this function must be handled in an efficient way without significant operational energy losses or negative impacts to battery life.

Of course, these are only a few of the participants who will benefit. Generators and network operators can benefit from long-term CAPEX avoidance savings linked to building out their generation capacity that would be needed to fulfil EV charging demand if V2G is not achieved.

Energy suppliers (also called retail utilities) will be the primary touch point for customers as they provide energy for charging and remunerate the customer for any energy discharged back to the system through V2G services. They will also play a vital role and will need to incentivise the customer to participate, making it easy and transparent as to what exchanges are taking place.

More widely, broader society will benefit from lower emissions due to avoidance of having to build new fossil power generation capacity to meet the additional EV charging load. Additionally, scaling V2G will be able

to support further penetration of renewables – thus, accelerating fossil power plant retirements and lowering carbon emissions. Lastly, V2G technology has the potential to provide additional indirect benefits such as the creation of new businesses and jobs.

What are the implications of not achieving this in the long term?

When assessing a future scenario where 80% of cars are electric in the EU, the European Environment Agency concluded that the share of electricity required for EVs could represent up to 25% of the total electricity consumption.

This will place significant stress on the system and, if ecosystem participants do not work together and fail to unlock the potential of V2G, energy grids could face significant challenges. This includes:

• Additional generation capacity needed to avoid system failure and blackouts to meet new demand

• Higher peak electricity demand requiring grid upgrades and higher network capital costs

• Less efficient provision of balancing services, with increased renewable energy curtailment, lower power plant utilisation rates leading to higher operational costs

• Increased electricity rates for consumers and price spikes and higher grid carbon intensity and emissions – higher costs needed to meet CO2 targets.

Figure 1: UK power system incremental costs for three different EV charging scenarios

To put this into perspective, Figure 1 below highlights the impacts of three different charging scenarios in the UK: unmanaged, smart (V1G) and V2G. Specifically, the incremental costs stemming from introducing one million EVs are quantified by comparing the three scenarios with a counterfactual system where there are no EVs. The V2G scenario proved to not only generate significant economic benefits but it also reduced CO2 emissions, lowering the UK power system’s carbon footprint by 12% compared to the counterfactual scenario.

How can EVs can be the solution to a future grid filled with renewables

Although smart charging technically works at the individual vehicle level, the real value for the energy system will be found at the aggregated level where hundreds, thousands or even millions of EVs can be coordinated to participate in grid operations and power markets.

V2G has the potential to generate major benefits for power grids, and in turn protect consumers from outages and price spikes. However, it is worth discussing the key implications in more depth. Firstly, EVs represent the convergence of two previously distinct energy systems – soon, the power grid will also have to supply the large new energy needs of the transportation sector in addition to demand from residential, commercial and industrial electricity sectors.

Additionally, driven by climate change concerns and changing economics, the penetration of variable renewables and electrification of heating is expected to increase rapidly across most markets. Thus, the electrification of transport is, in effect, compounding the problem – meaning the grid must support far more than it used to, heightening the importance

of managing EV loads via smart charging. Power grids, as they are set up today, would not be able to cope with the introduction of millions of EVs into the system.

A large number of EVs charging from the grid would result in a significant increase in overall energy demand and a much higher evening peak load – if commuters simultaneously plug in their vehicles after work it could cause the energy system to fail, resulting in outages and price spikes. This can be seen below in Figure 2 (unmanaged load).

The overall demand and peak load from the unmanaged charging scenario exceed grid capacity – greatly increasing cost and causing system overload and blackouts. This can be mitigated with V1G (graph 2) by spreading out the charging profile to hours outside peak times, flattening the load in a way to enable grids to cope with additional EV demand.

Taking this further, by developing V2G (graph 3) capabilities, the grid operator can also call on EV batteries to supply energy into the grid to meet demand, similar to a dispatchable power plant – thus the EV fleet could take advantage of excess renewables (e.g., solar) during the middle of the day and offset evening grid demand.

This scenario would significantly reduce overall grid costs through energy arbitrage (between low midday prices in day and high evening prices), more efficient operation of generation assets and lower need for additional grid CAPEX.

Vehicle-to-Grid has the capability to transform – and accelerate – the use of electric vehicles and the impact that they have on the grid and our wider energy systems. Instead of a drain, V2G has the power to make transformational change, something that is vital as we continue on our way to achieving net zero.

Figure 2: Unmanaged vs. V1G vs. V2G charging