Facilitating the integration of renewable energy into constrained networks: a community approach

The rapid increase of distributed renewable generators is nowadays a recurrent feature of many power systems. However, one of the biggest barriers to renewable generation's further development remains the aging electricity network. Lack of grid capacity and the remoteness of some of the best renewable resources have caused many generation projects to encounter network constraints that either deter or delay the process of grid connection.
As a result, alternatives to traditional network reinforcement have been explored in order to facilitate new connections to constrained networks. Previous studies have suggested a wide range of ad-hoc approaches, from off-grid systems, to the implementation of control schemes to actively manage grid capacity headroom. However for both social, economic and technical reasons, there exists an increasingly important need to ensure that these initiatives integrate effectively at the level of the local ‘energy eco-system’; encompassing heat, transport and electricity needs.

Furthermore the rapid growth in Scotland of community based ownership models for energy projects has created new opportunities for interaction between local generators and energy consumers, which in turn need to be considered as part of the technical analysis. ..

This research examines the issue of constrained renewable generation within a community energy context, as part of an applied study currently being done in partnership with Community Energy Scotland. It provides a descriptive and explanatory analysis of several case studies across Scotland..

The outcomes of the analysis and experience drawn from the case studies indicate that maximising local use of constrained generation can increase socio-economic benefits, while also assisting with the identification of more efficient configurations of local energy systems.