Around 260,000 households in Scotland have electric storage heaters installed. A significant proportion of these are likely ‘here to stay’ in the long term, and therefore will be a part of a decarbonised heating sector in Scotland.

Objectives

The objective of the of the project is to demonstrate through trial the ability of storage heaters to shift demand and answer questions required to enable households, and others in the electricity value chain to capture the benefits that smart storage heaters can bring.

Particular questions relating to the rollout which to be answered are:

·         What tariffs are currently available for customers with storage heaters in the SPEN area? Why are these tariffs as they are, what will drive or constrain any change to time of- use tariffs (including metering arrangement and half-hourly settlement), and how open are suppliers to such change?

·         What are the possible requirements and use cases from smart control of storage heaters from SPEN’s perspective and from the ESO’s perspective – today and in the future?

• To what degree can smart storage heater controls provide these benefits? And to what degree are the interests of the supplier, SPEN and the ESO pulling in the same or in different directions?
• What control hierarchy or strategy could be used to manage potential ‘conflicts’ between the supplier, SPEN and the ESO?
• What business models could be used so that the benefits of smart control accrue to the household? Are any changes required to regulations (in general, or a specific regulation) and market structures, and how might these be achieved? Are there any barriers to householders accessing these benefits?
• How can these business models ensure a positive customer experience, and ensure that comfort (or even enhanced comfort) is provided at a lower cost?

Objectives of the trial will be:

• Demonstrate the shifting of demand using thermal storage heaters whilst maintaining customer warmth and comfort in the tower block.
• Show that the storage heating demand shift in the tower block can support local EV charging requirements.
• Show that the storage heating demand shift can be randomised to support cold load pick up and support use of constrained wind.