Project Summary

SIF BLADE meets the aim of SIF Round 2 Challenge 3 – improving system resilience and robustness.  SIF BLADE will increase the UK’s energy system robustness supporting efficient roll out of new infrastructure, by investigating and demonstrating how novel low-cost, low-carbon technologies can allow offshore wind farms (OWFs) to restore the onshore grid following a black out.  Proving this concept will enable accelerated roll out of OWFs to replace existing fossil fuel generators, whilst reducing any resilience issues that this may cause.

Doing so requires significant network innovation.  Innovation is required to:

·       investigate and develop the ability of technology suppliers to provide the necessary novel equipment, by defining intelligent requirements for the equipment from the network perspective;

·       develop a black start methodology of restoring the onshore network from offshore wind, including how the OWF can be energised; how in turn the energised OWF can be used to energise the onshore network; and how the restoration can be spread throughout the onshore network, all whilst maintaining robustness of the newly energised system;

·       understand the business case and market needs for black start services from OWFs;

·       understand the roles and responsibilities of a wide, cross-industry range of stakeholders, from transmission system operators (TSOs) to transmission owners (TOs) to OWF operators to technology suppliers.

Due to this cross-industry nature of the network innovation, SIF BLADE needs cooperation between network companies, generators (OWF operators) and technical experts. The partnership brings together all these necessary stakeholders through SPEN, SSEN, NHVDCC, Strathclyde and Carbon Trust (representing the nine OWA developers, EnBW, Equinor, Ørsted, RWE, ScottishPower Renewables, Shell, SSE Renewables, TotalEnergies and Vattenfall), with Nation Grid ESO (NGESO), Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE), Siemens Energy (SE) and EDF Renewables (EDFR) as project advisers.  These leading organisations will provide an unparalleled consortium for the development of black start services from offshore wind.  

Regarding users of the solutions developed in SIF BLADE:

·       TOs will use the solutions to ensure their networks remain resilient whilst decarbonising, by being able to restore their networks from offshore wind;

·       TSOs will use the solutions developed in SIF BLADE to create markets and procure restoration services in the future;

·       OWF operators will use the solutions to provide restoration services to the offshore and onshore network, and hence enable more wind capacity onto the network;

·       ultimately, consumers will benefit from the solutions by having a more resilient, low-cost, low-carbon grid serving their needs.

Innovation Justification

The problem SIF BLADE is seeking to solve is how a future net zero GB electricity system can be restored following a black out.  

One counterfactual to SIF BLADE is that the GB grid will continue to rely on fossil fuel generators to provide restoration, which is not compatible with sustainability or energy security targets.  An alternative counterfactual is that fossil fuel generators are decommissioned in line with sustainability targets, but this will lead to slow restoration times (which would have huge negative socioeconomic impacts).  

The value of SIF BLADE is to avoid these counterfactuals in a low-cost manner.  Without reliable, well understood net-zero-compatible restoration procedures, the future grid will not be sufficiently robust.

To achieve this, SIF BLADE is exploring how OWFs can restore onshore networks.  Previous studies have identified compelling opportunities for OWFs to provide net-zero-compatible restoration services, due to their large power capacity and high availability (compared to other renewable generators).

However, these previous studies have also shown that there are significant technical risks to be overcome before OWFs can provide restoration.  Firstly, black start capable OWFs do not yet exist.   Secondly, even if they did exist, TOs and TSOs do not know how to restore the onshore grids using OWFs.  Thirdly, the OWF operators and technology suppliers do not understand the stresses conducting a black start will have on their offshore assets.         

There are also commercial risks.  The cost of OWFs providing black start services is unknown, which inhibits market creation.  Because of this, from a technology supplier and OWF owner perspective, the potential revenues from providing restoration services are not known.  This in turn inhibits the necessary investment in innovation, which is why SIF is the perfect mechanism for SIF BLADE.

Whilst NGESO has recently launched a tender for restoration services from wind, SIF BLADE partners strongly believe that the technical and commercial risks mentioned above are too great for the market to solve through business as usual (BAU) tendering alone.  Rather, solving these complex problems requires collaborative high risk innovation.  SIF BLADE brings together the necessary stakeholders: from technology suppliers to OWF generators to TOs to TSOs.  This would not happen in a BAU setting.  All of these stakeholders must understand each other’s capabilities and requirements in order to make black start from OWFs a reality.

SIF BLADE is an ambitious project that will add significant value to the GB consumer.

Project Benefits

SIF BLADE will lead to direct CO2 savings.  In BAU counterfactual, restoration capability is mainly provided by fossil fuel generators.  Continuing in this manner is not an option for the electricity system to achieve net zero by 2035 (the current GB target).  SIF BLADE will investigate and demonstrate how OWFs can provide restoration services, which will allow for the energy system to cease its reliance on fossil fuel generators.  To quantify this, SIF BLADE will assess the CO2 savings providing restoration from OWFs will provide.

SIF BLADE will also lead to financial benefits.  In the future, the fossil fuel generators relied upon for restoration may be purely dedicated to providing restoration (i.e. they will have no other purpose or value).  These fossil fuel generators are costly to maintain in a state of readiness.  Further, the cost of fossil fuel is volatile, with large increases recently.  Conversely, offshore wind is now the cheapest form of electricity in GB, and prices are expected to keep falling.  SIF BLADE will show that using low cost OWFs to provide restoration instead of the costly fossil fuel generators will reduce the cost of operating the network.  This will lead to a reduction in energy bills for GB consumers.  To quantify this, SIF BLADE will assess the financial benefits of providing restoration from OWFs.

SIF BLADE will bring new products, process and services to market.  Currently, black start from OWFs is not possible.  

Regarding products, currently there are no wind turbines (WTGs) with black start capability, and no supporting products to enable existing WTGs to provide black start.  SIF BLADE will work with necessary suppliers to create such products.

Regarding processes, the procedures required to restore the onshore network, and return it to normal operation, from OWF black start is unknown.  Doing so will place stresses on components in the offshore and onshore networks, and hence will be studied in SIF BLADE.

Regarding services, black start from OWFs is not currently available to TSOs.  The main outcome of SIF BLADE will be to create a service ready for TSOs to procure.  This in turn will provide additional revenue streams for OWFs.

Discovery will identify detailed counterfactuals, and the metrics for measuring the benefits, and will use these to assess the benefits.  In later Phases, the analysis will be further refined with improved data produced in the project.