Optimising energy demands for new housing development in Cambridge – Milton Keynes – Oxford Arc

Abstract

The Oxford – Milton Keynes – Cambridge (OMC) arc is one of the fastest growing regions of the United Kingdom. The connection of OMC cities via new infrastructure services is seen vital for long-term economic growth of the arc. This growth is expected to increase the arc’s population by 1.9 million and create 23,000 new jobs by 2050. With world-class universities, research locations and high-tech firms, the arc’s future economic growth is threatened by the absence of affordable housing and appropriate connective infrastructures. Since residential and commercial buildings account for half of UK energy use, it is important to plan new housing development in a smart way by including low carbon technologies so as to reduce demands for energy. Therefore, this thesis studies the relationship between the urban development and energy and investigates the potential of low carbon technologies and associated grid impacts for the arc’s new housing development. The study considers PV panels with storage systems such as lithium nickel-cobalt-aluminium and lead-acid batteries as low carbon technologies and analyses their potential to reduce demand for energy from new housing development. Additionally, the growing use of electrical vehicles (EVs) and their impact on the grid has also been included in the investigation. The study calculates and compares the energy demand for the new housing development with and without the low carbon technologies under alternative scenarios which has been characterised as ‘degree of smartness’. The results show that installing PV panels coupled with energy storage systems reduce the dwellings’ demand from the grid as well as it is economically advantageous. Particular considerations about smart EV charging along with load shifting of appliances are highlighted to reduce the number of PV panels and the size of batteries to be installed.