Electricity/Power Grids | Claverton Group

Paul-Frederik Bach, ex-Director of West Denmark Power talks about Danish Windpower and smart grids.

Paul-Frederik – who has been a stalwart member of the group and attended 3 previous Conferences, could not make the last meeting due to illness. He was kind enough to give us this presentation which came with the following note:

Dear Chris, Dave and Fred,

The Claverton group is a fascinating forum, because different and interesting people meet there. Of course I am disappointed that I cannot attend the conference. I hope to be present at a future event.

I attach a brief PowerPoint (7 slides) to meet your request. I have tried to summarize my views. You are welcome to use it as you may prefer, for presentation, for handout or for other purposes. Slide 4 is a summary of my Platts paper (which was written for the Claverton discussions from the beginning).

The conference programme seems to be well packed with interesting contributions. I hope that the papers will be available at the web site.

Optimal central power station back up for wind – what is Claverton view?

The old power-station retention concept does require a lot of maintenance work to keep them open.
Long start up times are also an issue particularly if the turbine and the whole of the steam system is cold.
In comparison the engine based local CHP option can operate happily with minimal maintenance and with remote unmanned start up and operation.

The benefits from wind are clear they replace fossil fuel but are not effective as replacement capacity unless linked to a sufficiently large area of the world to ensure some wind all the time.

The NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen – urgent warning

The NASA Climate Scientist James Hansen and an international team of researchers have very recently completed a paper for the Open Atmospheric Science Journal, concerning an in-depth analysis of Climate history at the Earth’s Polar regions, relating it to today’s warming conditions.

Published on 7th November 2008, the peer-reviewed research paper shows, by careful calculations on proxy data for the very distant past, that we should expect high Climate Sensitivity, the warming signal of the Earth in response to Greenhouse Gas accumulation above ground.

The team looked at the relative changes in Carbon Dioxide concentrations in the Earth’s atmosphere and showed that the rate of change showed strong negative “radiative forcing” clearly associated with the formation of the polar ice caps, and used that as a basis for calculating the Climate Sensitivity.

News Flash – HVDC European super grid meeting in London

A meeting of French government representatives and energy and financial experts occurred on Oct 30th in London at which a plan for the construction of an HVDC link to bring power from renewables sites in North Africa to Europe was discussed. It was not clear exactly what the French plans and motives were, although it […]

2008 Claverton Energy Group Conference Papers Available

Those that have been forwarded in text format have been published as News Articles. Those in PowerPoint or PDF format have been uploaded to the website, and can be downloaded for reading at:

What is Microgeneration? And what is the most cost effective in terms of CO2 reduction

The UK Government definition of Microgeneration[1] applies to a rather surprising mix of heat and power generating technologies with a thermal output below 45kWt or an electrical output of 50kWe. It covers electrical generation from wind, solar photovoltaics (PV) and hydro, and heat generation from biomass, solar thermal and heat pumps as well as micro CHP which produces heat and power from renewable or fossil fuels. It is not just another term for small scale renewables, but comprises a portfolio of low carbon technologies.

There has been a tendency amongst advocates[2] and sceptics[3] alike to lump all Microgeneration technologies together, either as “all good” or “all bad”. This is particularly unhelpful when attempting to understand the potential contribution Microgeneration can make to UK energy strategy and it is important that we understand the particular characteristics and potential role of each technology.

Smart Metering 2009; Making it Happen

The Institution of Engineering and Technology are working with Tom Eales from Special Report Publishing who is producing a 16 page Smart Metering Supplement, to be published in The Daily Telegraph.

The supplement will focus on explaining the advantages, opportunities and challenges around smart metering for business and will be published in The Daily Telegraph on the 27th November 2008 with a huge circulation of 610,000 copies.

Further copies will be distributed at Smart Metering 2009 and all editorial content will also be published on the Daily Telegraph Business Club website. The tabloid-sized page report will be written by highly regarded journalists and industry speakers and will be packed with relevant editorial.

How to Turn Standby Generation Into Profit-Making Assets

It does not make sense to ignore assets, leaving them idle, collecting dust and slowly degenerating (excuse the pun). Ask yourself why we spend thousands of pounds on standby generation just to have it lying dormant, gathering dust? Surely it makes much more sense to generate a profit from at least some of these assets.

With the continued expansion of wind energy the national grid need to increase their ability to cope with power fluctuations. They are already discussing ways in which they can encourage increased participation in Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR).
What is the solution? One solution is to increase use of embedded generation

European Super Grid – press release

At the fourth Claverton Energy conference, hosted by Wessex Water, Bath, international energy expert Dr Czisch outlined his strategy for a European-wide super grid that would supply all of Europe with entirely renewable electricity. Speaking at the conference Dr Czisch of Kassel University, Germany, also said the move to a renewable electricity system could cost the UK consumer the same as what is currently being paid, and, if there is the political will, he added that it could in theory be achieved in decades.

UK ENERGY SYSTEM COULD SUFFER SAME FATE AS BANKS, EXPERTS WARN

Representatives of an independent group of over 250 international energy and financial experts are meeting this week to reveal how the UK, Europe and other continents can run on renewable electricity for a similar price to that currently paid for fossil-based electricity. The Claverton Energy Research Group is also warning on the eve of its conference, which runs in Bath from 24-26 Oct, that current world governments’ energy policies are inadequate to meet growing global energy demands, and says serious action needs to be taken now!