Kelly currently works as an Energy Insight Lead at National Grid ESO, developing their Future Energy Scenarios. Kelly’s presentation topic is “Best Practices Used When Working with Electricity Storage”. This presentation is given via zoom on 31st March 2023.

Kelly shares a lot of working experience, which is not only technical but also practical. Business case study for wind power energy is introduced firstly. Synergies and location is important for sensitivity analysis. Innovate UK technology benchmark is presented for storage and flexibility. When planning energy storage, safety, geographical constraints, environmental taxes are all important impact factors. For EDF Energy Storage, various markets and assets should be considered. For NG ESO, techno-economical improvements should be in-depth understanding.

Q&A:

1. How do you start battery analysis?
   Kelly uses dynamic programming ,such as C++. Academia might use MATLAB. Kelly uses python after work.
2. How do battery simulation change?
   Keep dropping. If someone would like to do battery simulation,they would use similar methodologies. Every time you need to check the new policies and new battery constraints. It is dependent on the situation.
3. Is there are open source data provided by national grid for users?
   National grid are publishing annual data report. There are open source links online.
4. How does Kelly feel about working at National grid?
   National grid is working at more  commercial  environment. With open source data, you can have access to many data for planning. You can have more chances to work with practical work investments and projects. If phD students are leaving academics, they should be open to explore different experience.
5. Is there any specific investment for renewable energies?
   Maximum wind power generation. For hydrogen, location, user preference and supplier control strategies are all huge focus for National grid. There is also a huge focus for energy market.
6. There are different energy storages, such as battery, compressed air and super capacitor. From National grid view, which might contribute to the grid and take more proportion in the future?
   It is a challenging grid. National grid look at the pipeline of energy storages. We need to forecast these in the future. Battery is preferable. Owing to different applications, there is always mixed solution instead of single solution. Because different scenarios always come along with different characteristics and economics.

With professional evaluations, Kelly’s presentation gives different analysis from National grid view. Owing to mature working and studying experience, Kelly also helps build up confidence for PhD students as industrial engineer. We sincerely thanks Kelly’s wonderful presentation and all the attendees.

By Xin Ma

WiP Officer, UoB IEEE Student Branch