Net Zero Transport - Discovery Continuity will facilitate the exploration of low carbon solutions by identifying the most efficient transition for the rail decarbonisation potentially using different low carbon solutions. It will also facilitate the investigation, for the first time, of the feasibility of developing resilient and flexible railway multi-energy hubs around 2500 railway stations and connecting these hubs to form a hub network to ensure grid flexibility, power security and emission reduction.
Benefits
To meet the government’s Rail Decarbonisation Action Plan, diesel-only trains phase out and net zero target (2040 and 2050 respectively), the building of multi-energy hubs around stations in the UK will drastically reduce the 2.8MtCO2e produced p.a., by improving energy efficiency, integrating renewable sources, and providing power grid services where possible.
Learnings
Outcomes
The project was successful in securing further funding following the demonstration of the concept. Beta will evolve the prototype into a commercial solution that can be rolled out across GB DNOs and beyond, improving resilience.
Lessons Learnt
The hubs project discovery phase assessed 7 stations in Scotland and England, covering both busy, urban stations and small, rural stations along non-electrified infrequent routes. Cost benefit analysis under four scenarios (S1-S4) were conducted:
- S1: Station roof PV + battery storage to supply station non-traction demand.
- S2: S1 + car park PV canopy to supply station non-traction demand and EV charging.
- S3: S2 + regenerative power from trains and provide ancillary services to the power grid.
- S4: local renewables (solar PV and/or wind) + storage to recharge/refuel battery trains and hybrid trains.
Significant reduction in OPEX and carbon footprint with reasonable payback periods has been confirmed. The results show that across the different scenarios there was an energy cost reduction of between 44-211% with payback time 4.7-12.6 years. For instance, a busy urban station, such as Haymarket (nearly 5 million passengers pre-pandemic) achieved net zero with 211% energy cost savings (i.e. gained 111% profit). For a rural station, along a non-electrified infrequent route, such as Barrhill (on Girvan to Stranraer section, Glasgow South Western Line), demonstrated a payback time 12.6 years, without incurring expensive and lengthy rail electrification.
Underpinned by machine-learning assisted digital twin technology, novel power electronics-based energy hub technology, advanced control framework, and wide area optimal planning and operation framework, discovery phase demonstrated efficiency and flexibility improvement, emission reduction, power security and power grid support of the energy hubs.
The alpha phase planned to undertake detailed hub design for up to two stations investigated in the discovery phase, identify technical solutions with minimum viable product (MVP) features, develop implementation and commercialization plan, demonstrate the technological viability and economic, environmental and societal benefits, and address potential complexities/challenges, enabling the hub technology to become a business-as-usual activity for mass roll-out.