Scottish Renewables Partnership Enters 10th Year

The Technology and Innovation Centre’s Scottish Low Carbon Power and Energy Partnership (TIC LCPE), a research program bringing together academia and industry to address renewable energy challenges, and funded by ScottishPower and SSE, has been extended into its tenth year.

TIC LCPE links technical expertise from the University of Strathclyde to the low carbon energy sector. Innovative projects developed through the partnership set out to solve challenges such as opening new markets and reducing costs for renewable energy, dealing with a maturing wind fleet, and supporting renewables integration into the energy system.

The program, which started in 2013, will now run until at least 2023 to explore more efficient use of energy resources. To date, the partnership has focused on reducing the costs and risks associated with both onshore and offshore wind projects, with different sectors working together on key industry challenges. It has directly led to significant improvements that are already benefitting the industry.

One project on managing frequency response from wind farms ensures National Grid ESO can be kept informed of wind farms’ capability to feed into the market to help better balance supply and demand.

Another initiative is making it cheaper to install turbines in the sea by using data to make improved decisions for offshore logistics. SSE has already adopted the simulation and optimization tool at one wind farm, which allows it to work out the most cost-effective time to send out vessels.

Spearheaded by the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE) at Strathclyde, the program links with colleagues across the engineering faculty including the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, Mechanical and Civil Engineering, as well as Management Science.

New project themes include digital and smart energy networks to further improve carbon reduction by facilitating an increase in the amount of renewable energy that can be transmitted and distributed to consumers.

“We are delighted the program has been renewed, which means we can continue our collaboration with SSE and ScottishPower and translate University research into real-world impact and benefit for industry,” said Strathclyde’s Academic Director of the project, Professor Stuart Galloway.

“The program will continue to focus on transferring low carbon innovations generated at the University into new tools and capabilities for our industrial partners. We will also continue our work beyond engineering in climate justice to advise how the University can help them deliver on their net zero targets,” he added.

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