The objective of the Fellowship is to create a new platform to identify millions of streams of power flows in the large-scope distribution network to enable the ambitious blockchain technology for the power industry, which is seen as a future trend with a growing number of distributed energy resources. I believe that the eventual peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity market can only be realised when individual transactions can be physically traced to enhance the transparency and reflect the actual usage of the network for correct billing. This Fellowship questions the overlook of the present blockchain concept on the power grid infrastructure and proposes to analytically uncouple transactions from the usage of the physical medium for electricity transport. This Fellowship pushes the complex power systems (particularly distribution networks) analytics to its new limits by i) exploiting geographical information system with new distribution power flow tracing techniques with newly defined trait; ii) taking into account the mobility of distributed energy resources, e.g. electric vehicles, battery energy storage to flexible electricity trading from the physical constraint of the infrastructure; iii) using analytical, signal processing and chromatics methodology with smart metering data to improve power flow tracing performance especially for highly complicated distribution networks with microgrids and millions of nodes to represent all market participants; iv) developing a new tool as a fundamental layer of application programming interface to the future blockchain platform. The outcome of this Fellowship will not only shed light on the fundamental barriers on the energy P2P sharing economy but will also lead to the rollout of blockchain in the energy sector by enabling substantial public engagement to realise "Decarbonisation, Deregulation, Decentralisation" via "Transactions, Transparency, Traceability, Time-stamped, Trust".

The project will provide strategic insights regarding the integration of the transport sector into future low carbon electricity grids, and is inspired by limitations in current grid investment, operation and control practices as well as regulation and market operation, which may prevent an economically and environmentally effective transition to electric mobility. Although various individual aspects of the operation of electricity systems within an integrated transport sector have received some research attention, integrated planning of the grid, EV charging infrastructure and ICT (information and communication technologies) infrastructure design have not been addressed yet. In this proposal we propose to tackle these challenges in an integrated manner. At the heart of our proposal is a whole systems approach. It recognises the need to consider: EV demand and flexibility, electricity network operation and design, charging infrastructure operation and investment, ICT requirements and business models for electric mobility. This is essential when considering constraints imposed by the network on EV charging, and in return the requirements imposed by EVs on the system design and operation. This research will place emphasis on future energy scenarios relevant to the UK and China, but the tools, methods and technologies we develop will have wider applications. Specifically, a number of infrastructure planning related challenges for the massive rollout of EV have yet to be comprehensively investigated. First, traditional models of the travel of vehicles are based on the statistical prediction of aggregate-level travel demand without capturing the behavioural characterisation of users' driving requirements and preferences. Hence, this project will investigate new alternative activity-based travel demand models capturing in a bottom-up approach the behavioural basis of individual users' decisions regarding participation in activities yielding driving needs, behavioural aspects related to EV adoption and alternative EV charging strategies, as well as the characteristics of EV and the charging infrastructure. Unlike the existing models that analyse the EV impacts on isolated sectors of the power system, this project will assess economic effects on generation, transmission and distribution sectors simultaneously and subsequently reveal trade-offs between the cost and benefit streams of different EV charging strategies for different actors in the electricity chain. Furthermore, the closely related problem of EV charging infrastructure and ICT infrastructure planning -which has a central role in the massive EV rollout- has been almost completely neglected. This research project will examine novel risk-constrained stochastic optimization approaches in order to address the challenge of strategically investing in EV recharging and ICT infrastructures ahead of need, and will analytically investigate the interdependence between the power systems and EV enabling infrastructure planning. This project will also investigate alternative business models for the EV market integration and will propose a framework providing the opportunity for EVs to simultaneously support more efficient system operation and investment in assets across the entire electricity system chain. This research will formulate a new decentralised, market-based planning mechanism appropriate for deregulated power system environment and enable the investigation of the impact of alternative market designs and arrangements on the cost effectiveness of EV integration. Finally, a set of comprehensive use cases employing tools and methodologies developed in the project will be employed to understand the role and the importance of electric mobility in future UK and China low carbon systems and produce a suitable commercial and regulatory framework and a set of policy recommendations on ways of supporting the optimal deployment of EV infrastructure.

The UK electricity system faces challenges of unprecedented proportions. It is expected that 35 to 40% of the UK electricity demand will be met by renewable generation by 2020, an order of magnitude increase from the present levels. In the context of the targets proposed by the UK Climate Change Committee it is expected that the electricity sector would be almost entirely decarbonised by 2030 with significantly increased levels of electricity production and demand driven by the incorporation of heat and transport sectors into the electricity system. The key concerns are associated with system integration costs driven by radical changes on both the supply and the demand side of the UK low-carbon system. Our analysis to date suggests that a low-carbon electricity future would lead to a massive reduction in the utilisation of conventional electricity generation, transmission and distribution assets. The large-scale deployment of energy storage could mitigate this reduction in utilisation, producing significant savings. In this context, the proposed research aims at (i) developing novel approaches for evaluating the economic and environmental benefits of a range of energy storage technologies that could enhance efficiency of system operation and increase asset utilization; and (ii) innovation around 4 storage technologies; Na-ion, redox flow batteries (RFB), supercapacitors, and thermal energy storage (TES). These have been selected because of their relevance to grid-scale storage applications, their potential for transformative research, our strong and world-leading research track record on these topics and UK opportunities for exploitation of the innovations arising. At the heart of our proposal is a whole systems approach, recognising the need for electrical network experts to work with experts in control, converters and storage, to develop optimum solutions and options for a range of future energy scenarios. This is essential if we are to properly take into account constraints imposed by the network on the storage technologies, and in return limitations imposed by the storage technologies on the network. Our work places emphasis on future energy scenarios relevant to the UK, but the tools, methods and technologies we develop will have wide application. Our work will provide strategic insights and direction to a wide range of stakeholders regarding the development and integration of energy storage technologies in future low carbon electricity grids, and is inspired by both (i) limitations in current grid regulation, market operation, grid investment and control practices that prevent the role of energy storage being understood and its economic and environmental value quantified, and (ii) existing barriers to the development and deployment of cost effective energy storage solutions for grid application. Key outputs from this programme will be; a roadmap for the development of grid scale storage suited to application in the UK; an analysis of policy options that would appropriately support the deployment of storage in the UK; a blueprint for the control of storage in UK distribution networks; patents and high impact papers relating to breakthrough innovations in energy storage technologies; new tools and techniques to analyse the integration of storage into low carbon electrical networks; and a cohort of researchers and PhD students with the correct skills and experience needed to support the future research, development and deployment in this area.

The objective of the Fellowship is to create a new platform to identify millions of streams of power flows in the large-scope distribution network to enable the ambitious blockchain technology for the power industry, which is seen as a future trend with a growing number of distributed energy resources. I believe that the eventual peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity market can only be realised when individual transactions can be physically traced to enhance the transparency and reflect the actual usage of the network for correct billing. This Fellowship questions the overlook of the present blockchain concept on the power grid infrastructure and proposes to analytically uncouple transactions from the usage of the physical medium for electricity transport. This Fellowship pushes the complex power systems (particularly distribution networks) analytics to its new limits by i) exploiting geographical information system with new distribution power flow tracing techniques with newly defined trait; ii) taking into account the mobility of distributed energy resources, e.g. electric vehicles, battery energy storage to flexible electricity trading from the physical constraint of the infrastructure; iii) using analytical, signal processing and chromatics methodology with smart metering data to improve power flow tracing performance especially for highly complicated distribution networks with microgrids and millions of nodes to represent all market participants; iv) developing a new tool as a fundamental layer of application programming interface to the future blockchain platform. The outcome of this Fellowship will not only shed light on the fundamental barriers on the energy P2P sharing economy but will also lead to the rollout of blockchain in the energy sector by enabling substantial public engagement to realise "Decarbonisation, Deregulation, Decentralisation" via "Transactions, Transparency, Traceability, Time-stamped, Trust".