A stylish adaptable solution to heating in a commercial environment Caspian fan convectors - a single heating solution for a variety of applications - high, low or ceiling mounted installation - Plumbs into the central heating system - Suitable for traditional and renewable heat sources - EC motor technology for BMS compliance - Independently certified by BSRIA - Industry leading five year warranty - Manufactured in the UK 01245 324900 | sales@smithsep.co.uk SmithsEP.co.uk | @SmithsEP_UK | #ThinkSmiths The impact of LSBUs research for GreenSCIES will reach beyond the capital, and will be applicable whenever there are sources of unwanted heat available. In the West Midlands, the project team is investigating the use of waste industrial heat and energy stored in canal water. It is also looking at using flooded, disused mines in Sheffield, in a similar way to that of the Mijnwater (Minewater) project in Heerlen, the Netherlands, which is based around two flooded mineshafts, one kept warm and the other cold to provide seasonal storage. Energy Superhub Oxford In Oxford, another UKRI-funded demonstration project is trialling a combination of battery storage and ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) to store energy and help balance the Grid. The Energy Superhub Oxford is a three-year, 41m scheme based on large-scale battery storage. This demonstrator project includes rapid vehicle charging, hybrid battery-energy storage (a combination of lithium-ion and vanadium flow batteries), low carbon heating and smart energy management, and is anticipated to go live by the end of 2020. It is being led by battery-storage company Pivot Power, which has already placed an order for the batteries for this project. These are big; the lithium-ion battery is 50MW, housed in 19 shipping containers, and will be linked to a National Grid electricity substation in Oxford. The battery will store energy from the Grid when price and demand are low and supply is high; it will release energy back to the Grid when price and demand are high and supply is low. There is also a 2MW vanadium flow battery otherwise known as a flow machine manufactured by RedT Energy (see panel What is a vanadium flow machine?). Unlike lithium-ion, its electrolyte does not degrade with use, so the project will investigate how to integrate the technologies to reduce degradation in the lithiumion battery. The scheme also includes electric vehicle charging on a private wire network, to give 25MW of rapid charging for 100 cars, while on the heat side the project is installing shared ground arrays for 300 properties, each with its own GSHP. Smart software will manage the energy storage, electric vehicle charging and heat pumps, to help balance the Grid. The heat pumps, manufactured by Kensa, will be controlled using Switchee smart controls linked to a cloud-based platform that combines property information with time-of-use tariffs to produce an optimised heating schedule. The Kensa heat optimisation platform will use the fabric of the property to store heat energy ahead of peak energy times by raising the temperature of the building when electricity is cheap, to allow the GSHP to turn off when the cost of electricity is most expensive. As electricity will be cheaper when wind and solar generation are high, load shifting heat will help reduce carbon emissions. The system is currently under construction and set to go live at the end of the year. CJ 44 May 2020 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE May20 pp42-44 Supp Energy network pilots.indd 44 24/04/2020 16:34