What is it about?
Thermodynamic (energy and exergy) analysis can give rise to differing insights into the relative merits of the various end uses of electricity for heat and power. The thermodynamic property known as ‘exergy’ reflects the ability to undertake ‘useful work’, but does not represent well heating processes within an energy sector. The results represent a first indicative analysis of possible long-term trends in this heat/power share across the UK economy. Whilst the study is the first to consider this topic within such a timeframe, some of the necessary simplifying assumptions mean there are substantial uncertainties associated with the results. Where end-use heat demands are met by electricity, energy and exergy analysis should be performed in parallel in order to reflect the interrelated constraints imposed by the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics. An understanding of the actual end-uses for electricity will also enable policy makers to take account of the implications of a greater end-use of electricity in the future.
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Why is it important?
The end-use of electricity in the home, in the service sector, in industry, and the UK economy more generally has been examined in order to estimate how much is used for heat and power, respectively. The share of electricity employed for heat and power applications has been studied, and alternative scenarios for the future development of the UK energy system were then used to evaluate the variation in heat/power share out to 2050. It was found that the proportion of electricity used to meet these end-use heat demands in the three sectors examined were likely to be quite high (approx. 50–60%), and that these shares are insensitive to the precise nature of the forward projections (forecasts, transition pathways or scenarios). That is a significant amount of end-use power consumption in the three UK demand sectors considered here: across households, services, and industry. It is for this reason that the UK Government and its energy and climate change advisory bodies have recently taken a keen interest in the provision of heat services in Britain.
Perspectives
The research reported here was partially supported by a series of UK research grants awarded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), originally as part of the SUPERGEN ‘Highly Distributed Power Systems’ (HDPS) Consortium (grant GR/T28836/01, for which Prof. Hammond was a co-investigator). Dr Allen’s doctoral research was funded under this grant. It was renewed in 2009 as the ‘Highly Distributed Energy Futures’ (HiDEF) Consortium (grant EP/G031681/1, for which Prof. Hammond was again a co-investigator). During the preparation of this piece, Prof. Hammond jointly led a large consortium of nine university partners funded by the EPSRC entitled ‘Realising Transition Pathways: Whole Systems Analysis for a UK More Electric Low Carbon Energy Future’ [under Grant EP/K005316/1]. He also led a small consortium of three university partners studying ‘Industrial Energy Use from a Bottom-up Perspective’ funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) [under the Phase 2 Grant NE/G007748/1]. Dr McKenna’s doctoral research was also funded via an interdisciplinary studentship awarded by UKERC. Finally, Prof. Hammond continues to work in the field of industrial energy use and carbon emissions reduction supported by the EPSRC ‘End Use Energy Demand’ (EUED) Programme, as a Co-Director of the Centre for Industrial Energy, Materials and Products (CIE-MAP) (grant EP/N022645/1); a national research centre made up of four university partners studying the potential for reducing industrial energy and material use in supplying UK needs.
Professor Emeritus Geoffrey P Hammond
University of Bath
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The thermodynamic implications of electricity end-use for heat and power, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part A Journal of Power and Energy, February 2017, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0957650917693483.
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