Economic and environmental assessment of energy systems integration for increased utilisation and reduced curtailment of offshore wind farms

Project Description:

This project is open to applicants until 16 May 2024. The successful candidate will begin their study in September 2024.

This Research Project is part of the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Resilience and Sustainability’s Energy Economics Cluster.

Environmental concerns, growing populations and a constrained fossil-manufactured energy supply present major challenges for society and there is a real need to develop forms of resilient energy systems that are less dependent on finite energy sources. Renewable energy technologies (RES) along with energy efficiency can provide sustainable solutions for effective energy procurement. The implementation of energy technologies can provide multiple benefits to local and national level such as energy security, and green energy supply. It is of paramount importance to meet national and international emission mitigation targets and in order to accomplish this further integration of RES such as offshore wind energy is required.

Due to the intermittent nature of wind energy and system constraints, the UK curtails significant amounts of wind energy, and in the long-term an electricity network based on a high penetration of intermittent renewable sources will require energy components to absorb excess energy during periods of high supply, and (in the case of storage) return it as required (Cárdenas et al., 2021). From January 2021 to April 2023, £1.5 billion has been spent to curtail more than 6.5 TWh of wind power resulting in 2.5 million tonnes of emissions. In 2022, 4% of GB wind generation was wasted due to wind congestion – 3.4TWh – equivalent to the yearly consumption of 1 million British households (Carbon Tracker Initiative, 2023). Further, with gas price volatility at a record high, gas-fired plants were paid nearly £600 million to compensate for curtailed wind power, increasing UK emissions by 1.3 million tonnes (LCP, 2022).

It is then obvious that the exploitation of wind curtailed energy will have multiple benefits including both economic and environmental as well as will assist the establishment of a robust wind energy sector that will create confidence for further investments and expansion.

To this end, the proposed PhD will deal with the exploration and suggestion of extended energy systems that can increase utilisation of energy from wind farms through the exploitation of curtailed wind energy, or to explore scenarios where lack of grid connection capacity might be abated through local or regional energy systems integration. In particular, the project will design and optimise integrated energy systems that include energy storage (Liu et al., 2021), cooling and heating options, H2 or other fuel production (Baldi et al., 2022) and CCUS. Exhaustive process and systems modelling will be utilised to perform thermodynamic assessment and multi-objective optimisations. Techno-economic and lifecycle assessment (TEA and LCA) will be utilised to estimate cost benefits and estimate emission reduction opportunities.

The aim of the project is to produce and appraise high-level designs of resilient energy systems to combat existing costly challenges related to wind energy and develop solutions that will assist in meeting net-zero targets. At the end of the project, a robust database of energy models accompanied with easy-to-interpret key performance indicators (KPIs) will be available that will provide meaningful and efficient technical information on ways to utilise curtail energy and will inform policy/decision makers and other stakeholders about economic and environmental benefits on local and national scale.

The specific objectives of the project can be summarised as follows:

• Review the state-of-the-art with respect to energy systems technologies and integration for increased wind energy utilisation.
• Develop realistic scenarios of wind-centric energy systems containing a range of technologies which can increase electricity utilisation through flexible operation or storage at a range of scales (local, regional, national)
• Produce high level designs to perform mass and energy balances and calculate mass yields and thermodynamic efficiencies of the system by means of process/systems modelling.
• Undertake TEA, assessing a variety of combinations and evaluate their performance with a broad range of KPIs such as the levelised cost of energy (LCOE), net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR).
• To carry out LCA to determine what combinations of technologies offer the greatest environmental benefits, with a particular focus on GHG emissions reductions (contribution to net-zero and mitigation of climate change).
• To conduct sensitivity analysis to identify key bottlenecks and areas for improvement and suggest solutions for optimisation.
• To identify economic conditions and policy schemes that promote the viability of the examined integrated systems.

Training and Skills

You will be encouraged to develop their skills in process modelling & process economics and lifecycle assessment through taught modules at the University of Hull as well as more informal training in software e.g. MATLAB/Simulink, Aspen Plus. Students will attend OpenLCA software delivered by GreenDelta. Aside from an academic career, the project could lead to a career as a sustainability/low carbon/net zero specialist/analyst, or LCA practitioner in either a consultancy or in-house role in a variety of industries (energy, chemical, food, agriculture, waste, water etc.) as well as civil service/government roles such as policy development or planning.

You will benefit from a taught programme, giving you a broad understanding of the breadth and depth of current and emerging offshore wind sector needs. This begins with an intensive six-month programme at the University of Hull for the new student intake, drawing on the expertise and facilities of all four academic partners. It is supplemented by Continuing Professional Development (CPD), which is embedded throughout your 4-year research scholarship.

Further Queries

If you would like more information about this project, please let us know by emailing auracdt@hull.ac.uk.

Entry Requirements

If you have received a First-class Honours degree, or a 2:1 Honours degree and a Masters, or a Distinction at Masters level with any undergraduate degree (or the international equivalents) in Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, with an interest in process modelling and optimisation, we would like to hear from you.

If your first language is not English, or you require a Student Visa to study, you will be required to provide evidence of your English language proficiency level that meets the requirements of the Aura CDT’s academic partners. This course requires academic IELTS 7.0 overall, with no less than 6.0 in each skill. Please contact auracdt@hull.ac.uk for further guidance or questions.

Funding

The CDT is funded by the EPSRC, allowing us to provide scholarships that cover fees plus a stipend set at the UKRI nationally agreed rates, £19,237 per annum at 2024/25 rates (subject to progress).

Eligibility

Our funded Doctoral Scholarships are available to UK Students. In addition, we have a number of Scholarships that are open to International Students. Research council funding for postgraduate research has residence requirements. To be considered a Home student, and therefore eligible for a full award, a student must have no restrictions on how long they can stay in the UK and have been ordinarily resident in the UK for at least 3 years prior to the start of the scholarship (with some further constraint regarding residence for education). For full eligibility information, please refer to the EPSRC website.

How to Apply

Please note, you may only apply for ONE project offered through the EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience.
Applications are open until 16 May 2024.

Applications for this project are made via the University of Hull admissions system. If you have not applied with the University of Hull before, you will need to set up an account to enable you to track the progress of your application and upload supporting documents.

Apply for the PhD Scholarship in Economic and environmental assessment of energy systems integration for increased utilisation and reduced curtailment of offshore wind farms:

Full time | Part time

With your application, you need to upload copies of the following supporting evidence:

• Complete transcripts (and final degree certificate(s) where possible). If your qualification documents are not in English, you will need to supply copies of your original language documents as well as their official translation into English.
• Your Curriculum Vitae (CV).
• A completed Supplementary Application Form (please upload when asked to add your Research Proposal).

Guidance on completing your Supplementary Application Form:

The EPSRC CDT in Offshore Wind Energy Sustainability and Resilience is committed to generating a diverse and inclusive training programme. As part of our inclusive practices, the Centre adopts a process of assessing applicants’ experience, skills and attributes independently of personal details. To enable us to do this, we ask you, as the applicant, to complete the Supplementary Application Form, omitting the following personally identifying information from the form – name(s), ethnic group, nationality, age, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation. The form is then used by the Panel to assess and select applicants for interview. The form asks for details of your education, training and employment history as well as some specific questions about your motivations and research experience and interests. It is very important that you do not include the personally identifying information specified.

Completing the form

Applicants must:

• Remove all personal references in their application. Specifically, do not include the following details: Name(s), ethnic group, nationality, age, gender, religion, disability, sexual orientation
• Complete all sections of the form in font and size Calibri 11pt
• Please download the Supplementary Application Form here.

Uploading the form

When you have completed the form, please save it as a pdf format and labelled as follows:

Last name_first name PhD application form

Upload the form through the University of Hull student application portal when asked to add a research proposal (the form replaces the research proposal which is not needed for this application). Our support team will then process the form removing your name and allocating you a number prior to your application being assessed.

Interviews

Interviews will be held during June and will be conducted by a panel of academics from the University of Hull.

For an informal discussion please contact auracdt@hull.ac.uk