Steven Glynn

Analyzing the resilience and flexibility of power systems to future demand and supply scenarios

A systematic resilience and flexibility analysis of future power systems to address the impacts of climate change and Renewable Energy penetration is becoming increasingly important, as it is expected to have a great effect on the demand and supply portfolios. Depending on the intrinsic characteristics of each power system, different aspects have to be considered in the analysis since this cannot be universal for all power systems. To highlight this, the paper presents two different case studies pertaining to the Great Britain and Cyprus networks respectively. Firstly, the resilience of the Great Britain transmission network to future demand and supply scenarios (2020, 2030 and 2050) is evaluated using a reduced version of the current Great Britain transmission network. Subsequently, the future flexibility requirements of the isolated network of Cyprus are appropriately benchmarked against future energy mix scenarios that involve conventional generation and renewable energy penetration.

The impact of climate change on UK energy demand

The impacts of climate change on the energy system are diverse; this article focuses on the potential effects on UK energy demand and the ramifications for national infrastructure building on the findings of the UK’s 2012 Climate Change Risk Assessment. It reviews the available literature, where it exists, on the relationships among current energy demand, weather and climate change, and the implications for these relationships due to mitigation plans and potential adaptation responses. The review highlights the mechanisms by which future climate change, in particular changes in mean and extreme temperature, could affect the annual amount of UK energy demand and the seasonal, daily and spatial variation of the impacts. Published literature quantifying the effects of climate change on UK energy demand is limited; thus, where evidence is not available, information on the current relationship between weather and demand is combined with expert judgement to highlight potential demand responses to a changing cli...