Project Summary
The project will explore how fuel cell micro Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems can provide UPS functionality for individual homes as well as support other nearby homes which depend on direct electrification to provide heat, power and mobility.
Fuel cell technology can generate at efficiencies equivalent to the highest efficiency central generation plant even at micro-generation level. Its location within the LV network further ensures that system losses are minimised, by product heat can be utilised, and local balancing is more easily achieved.
This results in increased resilience and lower operating costs for consumers and the energy system.
Innovation Justification
Various approaches to providing a secure power system have considered how demand response, hybrid systems, and electrical storage might mitigate the challenge of aligning variable renewable generation with increasing electrical demand.
However, challenges remain concerning the interseasonal misalignment of renewable generation with the substantial winter demand for comfort heating. The appendix describes a number of precursor projects which have addressed specific aspects of the problem including short term resilience, interseasonal storage and multi-vector solutions. One project (Panasonic, Fujisawa, Japan) appears to comprehensively address all of the issues for the defined use case of new build housing.
The concept of fuel cell micro-CHP in homes has been demonstrated in over 100,000 installations in Japan. In Fujisawa the generators are co-ordinated to provide a resilient supply both to the individual homes in which they are located, but also to the wider community in the event of grid failure.
This project builds on the NPg Resilient Customer Response which demonstrated the potential for customers' behind the meter (BTM) assets to contribute to a resilient local network. In this case, the duration of resilience is enhanced by
incorporating not only storage but also dispatchable generation in the form of fuel cell micro CHP giving rise to new innovation:
• By integrating the energy vectors of heat and power we expect to achieve significant operating cost benefits from the more efficient use of input fuel. This will benefit vulnerable customers in particular.
• By selecting hydrogen as the input fuel, we address the challenge of interseasonality in the long term. (Natural gas may be substituted as a transitional fuel in the short term to avoid implementation challenges to the project.)
• By incorporating all three energy vectors we substantially reduce the risks of dependence on a single energy vector and are further able to support electrification of heat in adjacent properties.
The concept has thus demonstrated both the resilience and cost benefits for residential consumers. In the UK context, these same challenges may be similarly addressed whilst also mitigating other impacts of our increasing dependence on a single energy vector to meet our net zero targets.
Impacts and Benefits
FREE will deliver a commercially viable technology solution to the resilient and low carbon electricity supply to individual homes regardless of the status of the distribution network. This goes beyond previous UK resilience trials involving home or communal energy storage, or back-up fossil fueled generation, instead providing long duration embedded electricity supply to individual homes based on high efficiency low or zero carbon fuels.
The project will initially deliver a concept study including a CBA evaluating the customer and system benefits of the resilient energy system concept.
Alpha and Beta stages would undertake detailed technical and economic analysis followed by a demonstration pilot local energy system development (up to 100 homes) equipped with an appropriate mix of fuel cell generation and direct electrification solutions.
Although this project will demonstrate both short-term stability and longer-term (interseasonal) resilience, it also provides the potential for additional system benefits and economic value streams which benefit all customers, but particularly vulnerable ones:
• Resilience is no longer an afterthought or a reactive response; embedded generation provides a continuous long long-duration electricity supply at all times without delay. In Resilient Customer Response (NPG SIF2 Discovery), the NPV was £1.1M benefit per substation over 25 years using battery storage, and we would expect the NPV from FREE to be higher for the same customer groups due to long-duration supply capability and increased capacity.
• Dispatchable generation in individual homes can be aggregated to capture significant system flexibility values using innovative business models.
• The highly distributed nature of the fuel cell generators can support DSO flexibility and mitigate the impact of electrification of heat and mobility for example, providing additional headroom of 0.5kW per home (33% increase on typical ADMD).
• The CHP operation mode enhances economics for the householder at a significantly lower cost than from grid supply. We calculate that FREE could deliver £850 per year energy saving per home, giving 47% reduction to the baseline of hydrogen boilers. Corresponding CO2 savings are approx. 40 -- 50% assuming long-term emissions factors.
• The fact that fuel cells will be generating power when it is most needed by heat pumps in other homes supports the (direct) electrification of residential heat.
When considered as a system benefit with multiple value streams, fuel cell micro CHP could be capable of providing value for money as a transitional and long term technology solution.
