Demand response firm KiWi Power has recruited hotel giant Marriott to take part in a key smart grid trial taking place across London this summer.
Temporary drops, sustained
Part of network distributor UK Power Networks’ £23.8 million Low Carbon London project, the trials will see several London businesses paid to sustain temporary drops or cuts in their power supply in response to supply fluctuations – for example on a still day when London’s offshore wind farm is not generating, or when there are surges in demand elsewhere.
KiWi joins two other demand response companies, Flexitricity and EnerNOC, currently taking part in the trials, as well as “Big Six” utility EDF Energy.
In addition to several of Marriott’s London hotels, KiWi has also recruited hospitals, water treatment plants, public sector buildings and offices to take part in the demonstration.
Intelligent switching gear
Various items of kit within the businesses – in Marriott Kensington’s case the chiller units which power the air conditioning system – have been fitted with KiWi’s switching gear, which can remotely turn down or turn off the power supply for short periods of time in response to an automatic dispatch request from UK Power Networks.
If the businesses agree to the request, KiWi will turn down the power, either cutting supply to non-essential pieces of equipment, or kick-starting the business’s on-site generator. Some customers running combined heat and power (CHP) units were also asked to increase or decrease their grid consumption in response to a signal from the utility.
Extra revenue stream
The idea is that short power outages spread across a number of businesses and timeframes will not have any significant impact on an individual business or piece of kit, while giving participating businesses an extra revenue stream for agreeing to cut their supply.
The trials, which are being funded by regulator Ofgem, will allow network operators to demonstrate the viability of real-time “active grid management”, instead of the conventional method of relying on extra generation capacity to meet surges in demand or drops in supply.
Potentially, it could allow greater amounts of variable generation, such as wind and solar, to provide power to the grid, but it could also help the UK negotiate its way around the upcoming supply squeeze, which will see much of the UK’s conventional generating capacity comes offline in the next five years. Ofgem has predicted that the UK is at risk of power shortages within 18 months.
The trials started in June, and are expected to continue until August, KiWi told Energy Demand.
Demand response technology has already been deployed in the US, and UK Power Networks wants the UK to follow suit.
“Marriott was the first international hotel chain to participate in demand response in the US,” said John Conlon, senior director facilities and project management for Marriott International Europe. “As similar mechanisms grows here in the UK, the hospitality industry has an exciting opportunity to participate in a programme that generates new risk-free revenue streams for hotels, provides hotel managers with greater insight into energy usage and actively contributes to companies’ own sustainability goals.”
Conlon added that a fully-automated demand response solution allows his operation to temporarily reduce non-essential services, such as cooling and air handling during times when the electricity grid is highly congested. “Most importantly, all of this can be achieved without impacting comfort levels for our guests,” he said.