ERA Energy Research Accelerator

Hydrogen Storage In Caverns 2022
2022-03-14 | The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BG, United Kingdom
PRESENTATIONS AND VIDEO FROM HYDROGEN STORAGE IN CAVERNS 14 MARCH 2022 HELD AT GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON
TOWARDS NET ZERO
Energy storage is going to be absolutely central to the timely achievement of Net Zero. That storage will have to be applied over a vast spectrum of times ranging from fractions of a second to many months – and possibly more than a year.
Storing pure hydrogen in caverns has a vital role to play in this, because the transformations from primary energy to hydrogen and back to usable energy are so relatively straightforward.
This event, which took place at the Geological Society in London on Monday 14 March 2022, set out to explore some of the key challenges involved in deploying the necessary amounts of hydrogen storage in caverns.
Event Summary
The event started with a keynote review of just how much hydrogen storage we are likely to need in the UK – many tens of TWh worth and possibly more. The workshop will examine:

How hydrogen storage blends with large-scale compressed air energy storage and other thermo-mechanical energy storage solutions much better suited to shorter timescales than hydrogen.
The potential in the UK for making salt caverns to store hydrogen
The technical challenges of storing hydrogen in caverns
Examination of case studies of hydrogen storage in caverns

The workshop concluded with a panel session comprising experts from academia and industry.
You may also be interested in our Medium Duration Energy Storage event?
We also held a Medium Duration Energy Storage event at the Institution for Mechanical Engineers on Wednesday 16th March. If you are interested in the discussions that took place at this event, and to view the presentations and video, visit the page.
Medium Duration Energy Storage web-page
Event Sponsors
This event was run by the University of Nottingham in conjunction with our sponsors, the Geological Society, the Supergen for Energy Storage, The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Supergen, and the Energy Research Accelerator.

Event Presentations
Welcome and Introductions: Tom Bent, Chair, Independent Energy Market Consultant
Part 1: Video presentations of Deep KBB, Birmingham University, Gravitricity and Arup
Re-tasking methane cavities for H2 – Rene Schneider, Deep KBB GmbH
The need for H2 storage – Dr. Grant Wilson from Birmingham University
Hydrogen Storage in Underground Lined Rock Shafts – Dr. Anastasios Stavrou from ARUP
Part 2: Video presentations of Atkins and Teeside University
Hydrogen Storage in Underground Lined Rock Shafts – Sally Molyneux from Gravitricity
Utilising public data for identifying offshore salt strata and developing salt caverns for storing hydrogen – Dr. Georgios Yfantis
Hydrogen geological storage in saline aquifer and depleted gas reservoirs – Dr Sina Gomari, Teeside University
Part 3: Video presentations of UCL, SSE & Equinor, BGS and University of British Columbia
The value of hydrogen storage in the UK’s net-zero emissions energy system – Dr. James Price from UCL
Hydrogen in the Humber: Creating one of the world’s largest hydrogen storage facilities at Aldbrough – Michael Gillatt, Director of Gas Storage, SSE & Dr. Silvan Hoth, Equinor
SSE Thermal and Equinor: Hydrogen storage at Aldbrough (vimeo.com)
Geology as an enabler and barrier to underground hydrogen storage- Research questions – Dr. Ed Hough from BGS
Electrolysis at elevated pressures – suited to charging caverns – Professor Walter Merida from University of British Colombia
Panel session: Video featuring Professor Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith (Oxford University), Sarah Kimpton (DNV), Georgina Morris (BEIS)

Decarbonisation of Transport - part 2
2022-02-16 12:30 - 13:30 (Europe/London)
Transport in the UK is the largest emitter of CO2 emissions, in order to meet the Governments ambitious goals of Net Zero 2050, significant reductions need to be realised. During this webinar, Professor Sarah Sharples (Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department for Transport) talked about the challenges faced in decarbonising transport, and describe some of the current R&D being undertaken by DfT to support the decarbonisation of transport.
Sarah is a Professor of Human Factors in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Nottingham and from 2018-2021 was Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and People. She has led research in transport, manufacturing and healthcare, and currently leads the EPSRC (Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council) Connected Everything Network Plus. She founded and co-director of the EPSRC Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training, and has led research programmes examining implementation of new technologies in rail, highways and aviation. She was President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors from 2015-16.

Decarbonisation of Transport - part 1, an ERA perspective
2022-01-19 12:30 - 13:30
During this webinar Faye McAnulla gave an overview of the project Decarbonising Heavy Transport in The Midlands: H2GVMIDS, Thomas Steffen (Loughborough University) talked about the contribution Electric Vehicles (EVs) can make towards a net zero future, and Frank Tutu (EDF R&D UK Centre) presented on how EDF is working towards decarbonising transport.
Electric Vehicles as a Key Enabler for the Decarbonisation of Our Electricity Grid: Dr. Thomas Steffen (Loughborough University).
This presentation originates from the Future of Technology Series, and it discusses the contribution Electric Vehicles (EVs) can make towards a net zero future. Renewable generation is notoriously volatile, and smart charging of EVs offers a simple yet effective opportunity to shift the charging load to periods of excess generation. Thus, smart charging provides private and public benefits, and this research explores how both can be aligned. Because of the limited capacity, EVs will only be able to provide daily or weekly storage, while seasonal flexibility could be achieved via hydrogen storage in combination with hybrid vehicles.
Hy4Fleets: Frank Tutu (EDF R&D UK Centre).
Hy4Fleets was a feasibility study project that developed and tested the value for an assessment tool to support decision-making and encourage the transition of diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles (HDVs) to hydrogen fuel cell fleets. The project’s main goal was to address the gap in technical and economic insights on the hydrogen switching process that presents a barrier to the uptake of hydrogen vehicles by fleet operators.

Whistle Stop Tour of Energy Research Happening Across the Midlands
2021-12-15 12:30 - 13:30
During our Christmas Special ERA Net Zero Heroes webinar we showcase all the fantastic energy research that is happening at the ERA partner universities. Our partners gave a brief summary of the research, innovation and commercial developments in green energy that have taken place at their institution during 2021.

Making smart local energy systems happen
2021-11-17 12:30 - 13:30
Christoph Mazur from Engie was joined by Tobiloba Elusakin from Trilateral Research and Amruta Joshi from the University of Birmingham to discuss the implementation of smart energy systems. Christoph Mazur is Project Lead of Zero Carbon Rugeley, a project to produce an innovative design for a town-wide Smart Local Energy System (SLES) including the former Rugeley Power Station site. This project will demonstrate how carbon emissions and energy costs can be reduced whilst also providing a boost for local regeneration. Dr Amruta Joshi from University of Birmingham specialises in supporting businesses with needs in renewable energy, optimisation of energy storage for different applications, and energy efficiency analysis. Her talk highlights smart energy system implementation strategies for SMEs with exemplar case studies; reemphasising the contribution of SMEs in the UK’s action on climate change and hence, the need to address their challenges. Dr Tobi Elusakin is a Research Analyst within the Applied Research and Innovation (ARI) team at Trilateral. During his talk he discusses the EERA data project that proposed and is implementing a data framework to help assess the impacts of energy efficiency investments by taking into account all the relevant building-stock, energy, environmental and socio-economic data in order to assist local government administrators in assessing and prioritising energy efficiency measures in the modernisation and renovation of buildings.

Black Researcher Special
2021-10-20 12:30 - 13:30
As part of ERA’s Black History Month Celebrations, we have invited two of our black researchers, Eugene Boadu (Keele University) and Dr Shandelle Steadman (Cranfield University) to talk about the exciting research they are carrying out. Check out the recording of their talks below:
Would you like to trade your energy?
Dr Shandelle Steadman
As energy markets are becoming more decentralised, energy trading platforms are emerging as potential tools to facilitate the coordination of energy consumption and generation. Shandelle’s presentation will provide an overview of her research on the factors that affect indivial consumer’s and prosumer’s willingness to participate in a peer-to-peer energy trading platform. Focusing on a set of three European countries, it disentangles the effectiveness of both economic and non-economic incentives in fostering energy trade via intermediate platforms. Check out the talk Shandelle gave as part of the ERA Black History Month Net Zero Heroes Special below:

Climate Change mitigation and adaptation: Role of multinational enterprise subsidiaries in sub-Saharan Africa
Eugene Boadu
Climate change continues to pose risk to humanity. Continents such as Africa is vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change. The project aims to examine, at a granular level, the strategies used by multinational subsidiaries in mitigating and adapting to climate change within the context of developing countries. Empirical data will be obtained through the interview of relevant officials in selected subsidiaries in Ghana. It is hoped that the outcome of the research will provide policy and academic literature on climate change mitigation and adaptation. Check out the talk Eugene gave as part of the ERA Black History Month Net Zero Heroes Special below:

Post Doc Appreciation Week Special: The Life of a Postdoc!
2021-09-22 12:30 - 13:30
Our speakers Dr Barton Chen (University of Exeter), and Dr Sarah Yasir (Cranfield University) provide an insight into the variety of research being carried out by postdoc across the ERA network. They give a short overview of their research, outline what they do as a post doc and how this differs from when they were a PhD student, both from a research and more personal perspective.
Dr Jorge López Ordovas (kalfrisa) talks about Reseacrh in Academia and Industry.

Hydrogen Storage in Caverns Event 2021
2021-06-29 | University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
Hydrogen Storage in Caverns – a vital component in accelerating to net-zeroThis event outlines the vital importance that hydrogen storage in caverns can play in the push towards net-zero.
Towards Net Zero
Energy storage is going to be absolutely central to the timely achievement of Net Zero. That storage will have to be applied over a vast spectrum of times ranging from fractions of a second to many months – and possibly more than a year. Different sets of technology excel at different parts of that time spectrum and for very long duration storage that can charge and/or discharge continuously for weeks at a time, the clear technology favourites are based on storing fuels. Within that subset, storing pure hydrogen in caverns stands out as being the leading candidate because the transformations from primary energy to hydrogen and back to usable energy are so relatively straightforward. This event set out to elucidate some of the key challenges involved in deploying the necessary amounts of hydrogen storage in caverns.
Event summary
The event began with a keynote review of just how much hydrogen storage we are likely to need in the UK – many tens of TWh worth and possibly more. The workshop proceeded to examine how the hydrogen storage blends with largescale compressed air energy storage and other thermo-mechanical energy storage solutions much better suited to shorter (medium-duration) timescales than the hydrogen and to a first order, the same amount of energy will pass through hydrogen storage as through the medium-duration storage. The latter may be around one order of magnitude smaller in capacity than the hydrogen storage but is cycled much more frequently. Subsequently, a talk examined what potential there is in the UK for making salt caverns to store hydrogen – and in short there is much more capacity than we will need to use by 2050.
The second session of the event covered the description of the near-term project, HyNet which aims to decarbonise an industrial cluster in the north-west of England around Chester and the related project HySecure which explores how to create new hydrogen cavern storage. A short commentary followed noting that the work required to push hydrogen gas into a cavern can be several hundredths of the chemical energy contained within that hydrogen. This second session closed with a fascinating insight into social acceptance aspects of the hydrogen economy.
The third and final session comprised two more technical contributions: the first outlining why hydrogen presents very singular challenges for compression and expansion machinery and the second noting the connections between hydrogen and several aspects of Rolls-Royce business – Small Modular Reactors, large reciprocating engines for power, PEM fuel cells and, of course, aerospace. The event ended with a lively panel session containing, among other things, a near-unanimous consensus that the UK should be aiming to implement 2 TWh of hydrogen storage capacity in caverns every year between now and 2050!”
Please remember to bookmark this event page for your future reference
This event was kindly sponsored by

Event Programme
10:00 – Welcome: Prof. Seamus Garvey, University of Nottingham
Watch the video of the first session here
10:10 – The need for long duration electricity storage and options available: Prof. Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, University of Oxford
10:50 – The optimal mix of hydrogen storage and compressed air energy storage: Dr. Bruno Cardenas, University of Nottingham
11:10 – UK Geological Resource suitable for hydrogen storage: Dr. Ed. Hough, British Geological Survey
11:40 – BREAK
11:50 – HyNet: Project overview and converting Keuper Gas Storage for hydrogen duty (John Egan and Richard Stevenson)
Watch the video of the second session here
John Egan (Progressive-Energy)
Richard Stevenson (Inovyn)
12:40 – Pressure exergy and isobaric operation with hydrogen storage: Prof. Seamus Garvey, University of Nottingham
13:00 – Social acceptance of hydrogen: Prof. Zoe Robinson, University of Keele.
13:30 – LUNCH
Watch the video of the third session here
13:50 – Hydrogen compression and expansion – observations and experiences: Mr. Tony Kitchener, SVW Compressors pty, Victoria (Au)
14:10 – Some Rolls-Royce perspectives on hydrogen: (SMRs, PEM FCs and reciprocating / gas-turbine engines): Dr. Adam Morton, Dr. Phil Butler and Prof. Herve Morvan (Rolls-Royce plc)
14:40 – Panel Session: Panel members from National Grid, BEIS, Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult and BGS.
15:10 – Event Close

Grid Inertia 2021
2021-05-11 | University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
A summary of Grid Inertia 2021Event overviewAs large amounts of renewable energy generation are introduced to electrical grids and fossil-fuelled plants close down, the energy system loses the short-term storage provided by the huge spinning rotors of the power stations. This event provides a space to discuss the reduction in grid inertia and to explore solutions in terms of technology, markets and policy.
This is a summary of Grid Inertia 2021 which was run in conjunction with EPRI.
Below is the agenda for the event, followed by links to various thought pieces. For more technical details about this event, please visit the EPRI website here.

Time (GMT)
Session

9:10 -9:20
Welcome – Seamus Garvey

9:20 – 10:40
Networks and Technology session

Inertia Services in the Australian Power System – Samantha Christie, AEMO
Regional Inertia Challenges in Weakly Coupled Systems – EPRI’s Efforts and Experience – Papiya Dattaray, EPRI
Quantifying Inertia and System Strength in Modern Power Systems – Brian Berry, Reactive Technologies
Role and Value of Inertia in Future Decarbonised Grids – Goran Strbac, Imperial College London

10:40 – 10:50
Break

10:50 – 12:10
Market and policy session

Trends in Inertia: Past Markets and Plans – Ben Gomersall, National Grid
Design of Inertia Markets, Martin Kearns, EDF
Nordic System Overview – Mikko Kuivaniemi, Fingrid

12:10 – 13:00
Lunch

Ask an Expert – Andy Turner, Reactive Technology and Adrian Kelly, EPRI

13:00 – 13:55
Break-out sessions

Room 1: Synchronous Machines Tutorial – Seamus Garvey, University of Nottingham

Room 2: Grid forming and Synthetic Inertia – Mark Sumner, University of Edinburgh

Grid Forming Converters – Deepak Ramasubramanian, EPRI

Room 3: Storage and Fast Frequency Response – Papiya Dattaray, EPRI

Gary Preece, HighView,
Grid Frequency Volatility in Future Low Inertia Scenarios: The Role of Grid Scale Battery Storage – Solomon Brown, University of Sheffield

Room 4: Pure Flywheels – James Rouse, University of Nottingham

SHyKESS James Rouse, University of Nottingham
Gyrotricity – Keith Pullen, City University of London

Room 5: Inertia and Renewables

13:55 – 14:05
Break

14:05 – 15:00
Panel / Q & A – Michael Colechin

Andy Turner, Reactive Technologies
David Cole, Atkins
Dave Potter, Uniper Stability Pathfinder

Links to Events and Thought Leadership Pieces on Energy StorageWe have developed a number of useful events and thought leadership pieces on energy storage. A link to each of these can be found below.
www.era.ac.uk/Medium-Duration-Energy-Storage
www.era.ac.uk/Medium-Duration-Energy-Storage-2022
www.era.ac.uk/Hydrogen-Storage-in-Caverns-2021
www.era.ac.uk/Hydrogen-Storage-in-Caverns-2022
www.era.ac.uk/Grid-Inertia
www.era.ac.uk/Grid-Inertia-2022
Event sponsors

As large amounts of renewable energy generation are introduced to electrical grids and fossil-fuelled plants close down, the energy system loses the short-term storage provided by the huge spinning rotors of the power stations. Want to work with us?For more information about this event, or if you are a company and would like to discuss ideas related to this topic, please contact Professor Seamus Garvey at the University of Nottingham.
Email: Seamus.Garvey@nottingham.ac.uk
An enhanced flywheel system would be much cheaper than a battery based equivalent. It turns out after all that some new problems have some excellent old solutions.
Professor Seamus Garvey, University of Nottingham

Medium-Duration Energy Storage Event
2020-03-23
Medium-Duration Energy Storage in the Net-Zero UKIn the future, energy storage and the storage of energy services will be one of the main mechanisms by which the mismatch between resource availability and service demand is resolved.
The importance of Medium Duration Energy StorageAs the UK transitions to a sustainable future in which the net emission of CO2 is driven to zero, it is inevitable that solar power and offshore wind power will deliver large fractions of the total energy requirement. In this future, energy storage and the storage of energy services will be one of the main mechanisms by which the mismatch between resource availability and service demand is resolved.
Different technology sets are appropriate for addressing different storage durations. Supercapacitors and flywheels dominate the very short discharge durations. Batteries and demand-side response combine to provide very effective solutions for discharge durations up to 2-3 hours.
Fuels of different sorts such as hydrogen, ammonia, bio-ethanol, bio-methane etc. deliver very attractive options for long-durations where energy may be stored for years and discharged over periods of months. A fundamental, and still unresolved, question is whether there is a role for storage technologies which are suited to discharge durations between 3-4 hours and ~100-200 hours.
Sponsored by The Energy Research Accelerator and by Supergen Energy Storage Network+, this unique event, which took place online on Monday 16th March aimed to address that question head-on.
Event ProgrammeSession 1
Seamus Garvey Neville Rieger Professor of Dynamics, University of NottinghamMedium-Duration Energy Storage explained
Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith FRS, Professor and Director of Energy Research at the University of Oxford.The need for Energy Storage in a Net Zero World.
Goran Strbac, Professor of Energy Systems at Imperial College.What energy systems modelling indicates that we need in terms of energy storage.
Henrik Stiesdal, Former CTO Siemens WindpowerEnergy storage for high penetrations of offshore wind: needs and solutions.
Session 2
Toby Peters, Professor of Cold Economy, University of Birmingham.Storage of coolth (coldness) as a means of introducing flexibility into the electricity grid.
Angelos Chatzidiakos, Ramboll, UK.Pit Thermal Energy Storage, Experience and working systems.
Seamus Garvey, Neville Rieger Professor of Dynamics,University of Nottingham. Technologies for energy storage especially suited to the integration of high penetrations of offshore wind.
Session 3
Gareth Brett, CTO of Highview Power Ltd.Experiences in designing and operating liquid air energy storage.
Simon Branch, CEO of Innovatium LLP.Exploiting liquid air to transform industrial air compression into a service delivering medium-duration energy service storage.
Session 4
Haisheng Chen, Professor of Propulsion and Power at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing.Research Progress of Advanced Compressed Air Energy Storage in China.
Ziping Feng, Professor at Guangzhou Institute of Energy Conversation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou.How ice slurry technology can unlock the electrification of winter heating in Northern Europe.

Grid Inertia
2020-02-24 | University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, United Kingdom
What are the current perceptions and direction of travel around Grid Inertia?This is the summary of an event which took place the the University of Nottingham on 24th February on the subject of Grid Inertia.
Grid Inertia – current perceptions and direction of travelGrid inertia is a form of energy storage which addresses imbalances between supply and demand on electricity grids over very short time periods, typically on the order of fractions of a second to several of seconds. This is a summary of an event which took place at the University of Nottingham on 24th February.
Until now grid inertia has been provided by fossil fuel power plants as an unintended consequence of operating large synchronous machines stiffly connected to both the grid and large spinning masses (turbines). It is the kinetic energy of the turbine that may be passively adjusted, albeit momentarily, to account for short term supply/demand imbalances.
These sources of grid inertia will clearly be lost however as grids are decarbonised, leading to legitimate concerns over how future grids will operate. The field of grid inertia replacement is dynamic and rapidly developing, with many potential technological solutions, market designs, and mitigation strategies being proposed by a range of players.
Grid Inertia: Current Perceptions and Directions of Travel looks to invite this diverse international audience to discuss the wide spectrum of reactions and approaches, with a view to starting the conversation on grid inertia. The day will comprise of a series of talks from both industry and academia, culminating in a panel discussion. Talks will discuss emerging technologies as well as developing market place models through presentations from EPRI, the National Grid, EDF, and others.
The event took place at the University of Nottingham on 24th February, and was supported by the EPSRC funded Supergen programme and the Energy Research Accelerator (ERA).
Event Presentations9:10 – 9:40, Grid Inertia – Fundamental concepts and the developing marketplace, Adrian Kelly – EPRI
9:40 – 10:10, What have synchronous generators ever done for us? Guarang Vakil – UoN
10:10 – 10:40, Generator Stability Study for High ROCOF Events in a Low Inertia Grid, Martin Aten – UNIPER Talk 3 – UNIPER – Generator Stability Study for High ROCOF Events in a Low Inertia Grid
11:00 – 11:30, A generators perspective of grid inertia, Alastair Davies – EDF
11:30 – 12:00, The profile of grid inertia thus far and expected profile into the future , Ben Gomersall – National Grid
12:00 – 12:30, The DS3 approach: how Ireland is achieving high NSSP, Tony McGuinness and Marios Zarafakis – ESB
13:30 – 14:00, Inertia in energy storage. SynchoStore, Win Rampen – University of Edinburgh
14:00 – 14:30, Gyrotricity – a cost effective flywheel solution for supply of inertia, Keith Pullen – City University of London/Director of Gyrotricity
14:30 – 15:00, Real, partially-real and synthetic inertia. , Adam Hoskin – UoN
15:15 – 15:45, Grid-forming converters and what they do. Mark Sumner – UoN
15:45 – 16:15, Project Phoenix, Campbell Booth
As large amounts of renewable energy generation are introduced to electrical grids and fossil-fuelled plants close down, the energy system loses the short-term storage provided by the huge spinning rotors of the power stations. Want more information?For more information about this event, or if you are a company and would like to discuss ideas related to this topic, please contact Professor Seamus Garvey at the University of Nottingham.
Email: Seamus.Garvey@nottingham.ac.uk
An enhanced flywheel system would be much cheaper than a battery based equivalent. It turns out after all that some new problems have some excellent old solutions.
Professor Seamus Garvey, University of Nottingham
