Applied Energy 89 (2012) 3744

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Applied Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apenergy

Heat pumps and energy storage The challenges of implementation

Neil J Hewitt
Centre for Sustainable Technologies, University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, Co Antrim BT370QB, UK

a r t i c l e

i n f o

a b s t r a c t
The wider implementation of variable renewable energy sources such as wind across the UK and Ireland will demand interconnection, energy storage and more dynamic energy systems to maintain a stable energy system that makes full use of one of our best renewable energy resources. However large scale energy storage e.g. pumped storage may be economically challenging. Therefore can thermal energy storage deployed domestically full an element of such an energy storage role? Current electricity pricing is based on a hourly timeframe which will be demonstrated to have some benets for hot water heating from electrical water heaters in the rst instance. However heat pumps linked to energy storage can displace fossil fuel heating systems and therefore the question is whether a renewable tariff based on excess wind for example is sufcient to operate heat pumps. An initial analysis of this scenario will be presented and its potential role in challenging aspects of fuel poverty. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Article history: Received 6 July 2010 Received in revised form 4 October 2010 Accepted 13 December 2010 Available online 8 February 2011 Keywords: Heat pumps Energy storage Large scale non-dispatchable renewable energy

1. Introduction There is no denying the wider role that will be played by renewable energy and the UK has very signicant renewable energy resources especially wind, wave and tidal, solar when pursuing a strategically secure and environmentally responsible energy future. The UK Government through the Energy White Paper [1] states that 20% of the UKs energy will be provided from renewable sources by 2020. Given wind energys leading competitive position, it has been estimated that wind energy with utilisation factors of 35% will generate 80 TWh from a capacity of 26 GW i.e. about 20% of the overall annual UK electricity consumption [2]. Barthelmie et al. [3] states that the accuracy of short-term forecasting is economically viable for large wind farms. However short-term is dened in the range 036 h and these limitations will be explored in more detail to understand the challenges these place on the possibility of utilising non-dispatchable renewable energy as a socially-serving tariff for the alleviation of fuel poverty. Mueller and Wallace [4] review the wave and tidal energy systems and state that such technologies are 15 years behind wind energy but have considerably more predictability than that associated with wind. However there is a challenge associated with the available market space for non-dispatchable renewable energy without the necessary energy storage/interconnection investment and an understanding of the dynamics of electricity networks, buildings (as energy users) and demand side management in general. These elements must be combined into an energy system whose goals should be that of minimising carbon and minimising fossil fuel im-

ports while maintaining energy affordability and ensuring UK competivity. Thus the objectives of this work are for a likely wind energy system, to consider the dynamics of the aging electricity infrastructure (including the existing thermal generating plant), consider the dynamics of the built environment and consider a mechanism for managing these dynamics as an electricity tariff that may alleviate some of the challenges associated with energy poverty.

2. Energy poverty and the new wind age? OFGEMs Project Discovery [5] has four scenarios for future UK energy prices. These scenarios (green transition, green stimulus, dash for energy and slow growth) predict the average domestic consumer electricity bill will rise according to the following scenarios by 2020: Green transition 500/annum. Green stimulus 500/annum. Dash for energy 575/annum. Slow growth 600/annum. These scenario prices represent a 25% to a 50% increase in energy costs over the 2009 prices per home. Given that the UK denition of a home in fuel poverty is that the household spends more than 10% of its income on energy [6], and while it is believed that modern and future housing standards should ensure that there is no increase in hardship not unless there is a substantial increase in fuel prices, a minimum of a 25% increase in energy may represent a major challenge.

E-mail address: nj.hewitt@ulster.ac.uk 0306-2619/$ - see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2010.12.028

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N.J Hewitt / Applied Energy 89 (2012) 3744

Fig. 1. Typical times to synchronisation for combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) and pulverised fuel (coal) power stations.

The UK Government and devolved administrations have targets to ensure that no household should be in fuel poverty by 2016 (2018 in Wales) [7]. The 2010 target is not expected to be met and the 2016/18 targets will be very challenging. If Project Discovery can be used as a basis, what would a 25% increase in energy prices do to fuel poverty? It is estimated that this will ensure that a further one million households, including about 500,000 pensioners, will be classied as being in fuel poverty [8]. Decentralised renewable energy [9] is still in its infancy and it is therefore difcult to ascertain the conditions under which it will provide the greatest benet, given the potential for high system costs and improper performance claims. Therefore what are the choices moving forward? If the UK and Ireland are moving towards an electric economy led by non-dispatchable wind (in the rst instance), it seems appropriate to utilise electric heating, transport etc., to balance the electricity network. However this must provide benets to the participants as well as the electricity utilities.

A simplistic view is to relate this phenomenon to that of thermal mass i.e. base load systems (continuous operation) can be seen as heavy whilst the newer dynamic systems are seen as light. The latter heats up faster and therefore can be synchronised to the needs of the network faster. This is often a challenging task for a conventional electricity distribution network based on centralised thermal power plant but is complicated further by the addition of large amounts of non-dispatchable wind based electricity. Plants are dispatched based on a merit order i.e. response characteristics, efciency, network constraints etc. A sudden change in available wind energy may require a change in a power station status, an additional change that, as illustrated later, has a detrimental effect on the maintenance of the plant. Fig. 1 also barely notes the response times of the open cycle gas turbines used for quick responses (at 0.13 h i.e. 8 min). These typically represent about 1/20th of the capacity of the power station they are associated with, but are a noted growth area in Irish terms to meet the potential growth in the numbers of dynamic interventions required to accommodate a considerably higher wind penetration of about 40% by 2020. Such interventions are paid a high

3. Electricity network dynamics and energy pricing This analysis brings together electricity network operation, the potential impacts of wind energy penetration on such a network, the role of energy storage and the role of thermal lags encountered in buildings. The approach requires indications as to the dynamics of the above processes, their responses to changes in demands and for how long that stored response can provide a useful contribution to the end-user and just in a network balancing role. Response times of thermal power stations (coal-red pulverised fuel, combined cycle gas turbines, open cycle etc.) differ somewhat according to technology but indicative response times are illustrated in Fig. 1 for the three Northern Ireland power stations (as representative of the UK and Ireland eet) as outlined by the Single Electricity Market Operator (SEMO) [10]. In addition, in UK and Ireland, spinning reserve plants are available within about 30 s i.e. not generating electricity but at operating temperature. The rates at which a thermal power station attains its operating temperature are limited by for example expansion rates of the turbines etc. as they heat up prior to electricity generation and synchronisation.

Fig. 2. Wind energy dynamics.

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Fig. 3. Forecast wind (red) (MW) versus actual wind generation (blue) in Ireland for a day [13]. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this gure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

price (Fig. 8 illustrates peak system marginal prices for example) as they occur at times of high electricity demands and thus energy storage to reduce peaks in demands is seen as necessary. A caveat to this is that the price then paid for energy storage (as storage reduces the electricity price spikes) must therefore be competitive at a lower income rate.

Wind penetration is increasing on the Irish network, subject to economic and technical constraints. Fig. 2 illustrates the challenges wind places on the electricity network [10]. Similar conditions are expected on the UK network with 25 GW offshore and 8 GW onshore wind permissible by 2020 [11]. The rate of change of wind power noted is comparable with the response times of the fossil

Fig. 4. Energy storage response times [14].

40 Table 1 Global commercial PCM manufacturers. Manufacturer Rubitherm Crystopia TEAP Doerken Mitsubishi Climator EPS PCM temperature range (C) 3100 2327 5078 2228 9.5118 1870 11464

N.J Hewitt / Applied Energy 89 (2012) 3744

Number of PCMs available 29 12 22 2 6 9 61

fuel units when operating under their hot boundary conditions i.e. restarting in a time period or no more than 8 h since their last operation. Thus typically a 4 h time until synchronisation (aided by fast starting open cycle gas turbines) appears practical. However cycling of large scale base load power stations is problematical [12]. The challenges that arise are increased capital spend for component replacement, increased operation and maintenance costs, lower availability due to increased failure rate and increased outage time and increased fuel cost arising from reduced efciency and non-optimum heat rate. Recent studies suggest that the average cold start cost is 70,000 US$, warm start costs of 4000 US$, hot start costs of 3500 US$, based on 1000 MW nominal output of coal red plant. So what of wind forecasting? In order to reduce large thermal plant starts, operate plant more efciently and reduce the use of expensive open cycle peaking plant, can wind forecasts be produced that allow plant scheduling to occur in such a way as to allow existing fossil fuel plant to operate most effectively (or not at all)? Fig. 3 illustrates the challenges for forecasting wind [13] and the need therefore to bring on conventional generation short notice or indeed, increase the use of expensive OCGT generation. Thus

Fig. 6. Air source heat pump response time at start up.

the inaccuracy associated with 036 h prediction will require greater consistency.

4. The built environment, heat pumps and energy storage Wind energy in particular presents challenges due to its variability in relation to the demand (and supply) side needs of an electricity network. If a large amount of wind energy is to be superimposed onto a traditional fossil fuel red (or future nuclear) electricity network, the inherent smoothing associated with wind turbines widely dispersed across a geographical region may not be sufcient to manage the dynamics of existing fossil fuel and

Fig. 5. Thermal response of a 100 m2 semi-detached home built in 1995.

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nuclear plant (in ramping up or down depending on network requirements). Therefore an element of storage is required. Fig. 4 summarises the role of electrical energy storage technologies [14]. While a number of these technologies can be considered as mature, it is only the recent growth in non-dispatchable renewable energy generation that energy storage deployment has become of interest. Furthermore the built environment with its thermal lags and electrical demands requires further investigation as a mechanism for adding to the portfolio of approaches illustrated. The key challenges are technology selection and development and the relationship between the technology capacity, the building energy process demand and the socio-economic acceptability of the storage medium. Thermal energy storage systems utilising phase change materials [15] are an option to enhance thermal storage (whether actively or passively) in buildings. Table 1 illustrates some of the suppliers and their product range. It is

noted that many of these cover passive and active thermal comfort range and their supporting systems. The challenge is therefore energy storage. Large-scale storage has attraction for energy utilities and network operators alike due to the ease of communications and simplied response characteristics. The built environment on the other hand represents a virtual energy store that requires the development of a smart grid to enable its use in energy storage to its full potential and as it obviously already exists, potentially reducing capitals cost of energy storage creation. 4.1. The built environment as an energy store The ability of a typical example of the local housing stock to retain heat after the heating system was utilised was examined. Fig. 5 illustrates the type of results seen over usual winter

Average T @A

Average @ C

Average @ E

A.PCM inlet

A.PCM Outlet

Rad Surf

60

50

Temperature (C)

40

30

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0 0 400 800 1200 1600 Time (minutes) 2000 2400 2800

Fig. 7. Parafn wax based solid PCM response times.

600

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/MWh

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 Trading Period

Mean + 1

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Max SMP

Mean SMP

Min SMP

Fig. 8. System marginal price operation [10].

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conditions. While thermal comfort is a personal choice, for the illustrative nature of this study, 2.0 C from a UK living space norm of 21 C [16] is assumed and therefore 3 h storage is not unreasonable. Of course this varies widely dependant on building type, climate, solar orientation, passive gains, occupancy etc. and requires more investigation but the concept of using our building stock to effectively store energy for a number of hours prior to use is available. This not only helps to balance the electricity network in times of higher wind forecast but allows the organisation/person who participates in such a scheme to see benet by for example reduced electricity prices during such periods and less heating/cooling requirements due to a pre-cooling/heating period. Such passive systems can be augmented by for example wallboarding systems impregnated with micro-encapsulated phase change materials (PCM) [17].

4.2. Heat pumps, air-conditioners and energy storage dynamics There are a number of methods available to balance the electricity network in times of high wind energy availability. It has been illustrated that the buildings themselves have some ability but this requires an individual building approach which may be augmented by PCMs where thermal mass is an issue. Commercial buildings are already awash with air-conditioning (reversible heat pumps) and the domestic market is growing. So what is their value in balancing an electricity network? Fig. 6 illustrates the performance curve from a heat pump heating the home whose thermal energy storage performance was briey considered earlier in this study. It takes approximately 30 min before the system cycles off from start up at 18:00 i.e. the hot water returning to the unit is sufciently warm enough

Fig. 9. Water storage and daily use without additional energy input after 6 am.

Fig. 10. Impact of a low system marginal price boost to water heating for 30 min.

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Fig. 11. Impact of a low system marginal price boost to water heating for 60 min.

indicating that the home is no longer taking any heat. Adopting an alternative solution would for example, heat domestic hot water. The room space has not acquired the notional 21 C temperature in that time and therefore any storage capability would be compromised. Energy storage systems are a challenge. Water is effective but bulky. PCMs have excellent storage characteristics but poor thermal conductivity characteristics i.e. they are reluctant in the most part to let heat in an out at the perceived demand and supply side rates. Salt based systems seem to suffer from complexity and material challenges and may be best suited to seasonal storage systems. An example of PCM related activity is illustrated in Fig. 7 where the response times for a higher temperature heat pump are considered [18]. In the same 30 min, the temperature of a typical UK 144 l tank of water can be raised by 9 C. Thus the problem becomes this what is the best use of this 30 min of energy and why is there a xation with 30 min time slices? To answer the question regarding 30 min, hot water may be the best solution, subject to hot water storage losses being minimised. Such storage technologies exist for solar thermal systems and have been evaluated [19] with positive results for hot water energy storage regarding solar energy and next morning usage. The role of 30 min in making decisions as to the type of energy storage is also challenging. The system marginal price (SMP) for electricity from the supply network (as illustrated by the maximum SMP illustrated in Fig. 8) is dened by 48 time steps in a 30 min delimited electricity market day [10]. A model for exible electricity tariffs based on SMP would be required to allow excess wind energy to be used for example, domestically to space or water heat.

5. Alleviating fuel poverty Water storage advantages will not be realised if the insulation associated with the hot water storage tank is not sufcient. Building Regulations require all hot water storage vessels to be insulated. BS 1566 and BS 3198 allow maximum heat loss for factory applied insulation of 1 W/l of hot water storage capacity under test conditions. Heating to 60 C to minimise risk of legionella is required but equally to avoid scalding risk, the water delivery should

be no higher than 44 C [20]. A typical shower temperature of 37 C is often considered as a useful baseline for domestic hot water applications and a model was developed for hot water storage heat loss (Fig. 9). This model assumes that a night off-peak electricity pricing rate is used to change the hot water storage between 11 pm and 7 am. Applying a 30 min boost at for example 3 pm (a time where (a) the system marginal price is usually low and (b) from the selected hot water draw off prole [21], the hot water storage cylinder temperature has dropped below 37 C), the added benet can be seen until 7 pm (Fig. 10). A 60 min boost at this period (Fig. 11) can reveal added benet of hot water at a temperature above 37 C until 10 pm. If this tariff was effectively at zero cost to encourage participation, a saving of up to 0.40/day can be achieved. Space heating is more complicated and the thermal mass of the heat pump has been demonstrated to be a drawback for 30 min pricing. 60 min pricing would allow up to 3 h thermal storage in this example and would potentially offset the 47 pm peak system marginal pricing period. This can be augmented by energy storage including augmented hot water cylinders allowing contributions to space heating, targeted space/room controlling and more sophisticated energy storage in the form of phase change materials. Again savings of approximately 0.40/day can be achieved if such a tariff is low/zero cost to encourage participation. In order to achieve such savings technologically, a smart grid is required. Low cost communications to operate water heaters, heat pumps, air-conditioners etc. potentially based on the already extensive roll-out of broadband etc. will be required. Communication and the development of the soft grid will be a new area that must compliment any user interaction and user acceptability issues. Having users accept that low cost energy will benet when for example, they are not in the house and at work may be the greatest challenge of them all.

6. Conclusions The role of heat pumps and hot water storage cannot be underplayed in the efforts to integrate greater amounts of electricity onto the network. The dynamics of even relatively simple buildings

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N.J Hewitt / Applied Energy 89 (2012) 3744 [5] Project Discovery Energy Market Scenarios (Reference number: 122/09), 09/10/2009. [6] Roberts S. Energy, equity and the future of the fuel poor. Energy Policy 2008;36(12):44714. [7] http://waleshome.org/2010/01/fuel-price-increases-have-outstripped-resourc es-for-tackling-fuel-poverty/. [8] National Energy Action/Age Concern. Keeping Fuel Poverty in the Spotlight, 2009-2010 Seminar Series. Final Report EDF, NEA, DECC; 2010. [9] Walker Gordon. Decentralised systems and fuel poverty: Are there any links or risks? Energy Policy 2008;36(12):45147. [10] Single All-Ireland Market Operator <http://allislandmarket.com/>. [11] The UK Renewable Energy Strategy. HM Government, July; 2009. [12] Gostling J. Two shifting of power plant: damage to power plant due to cycling a brief overview OMMI, vol. 1, No. 1; 2002. [13] http://www.eirgrid.com/operations/systemperformancedata/windgeneration/. [14] Ibrahim H, Ilinca A, Perron J. Energy storage systems characteristics and comparisons. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2008;12(5):122150. [15] Agyenim Francis, Hewitt Neil, Eames Philip, Smyth Mervyn. A review of materials heat transfer and phase change problem formulation for latent heat thermal energy storage systems (LHTESS). Renew Sustain Energy Rev 2010;14(2):61528. [16] Yohanis Yigzaw Goshu, Mondol Jayanta Deb. Annual variations of temperature in a sample of UK dwellings. Appl Energy 2010;87:68190. [17] Shane Colclough, Philip Grifths, Stefan Gschwander. Thermal energy storage and the passive house standard: How PCM incorporated into wallboard can aid thermal comfort, PLEA2009 The 26th conference on passive and low energy architecture. Quebec City, Canada, 2224 June; 2009. [18] Agyenim Francis, Hewitt Neil. The development of a nned phase change material (PCM) storage system to take advantage of off-peak electricity tariff for improvement in cost of heat pump operation. Energy Build 2010;42(9):155260. [19] Mondol Jayanta Deb, Smyth Mervyn, Zacharopoulos Aggelos, Hyde Trevor. Experimental performance evaluation of a novel heat exchanger for a solar hot water storage system. Appl Energy 2009;86(9):1492505. [20] http://www.hse.gov.uk/lau/lacs/79-5.htm. [21] Energy savings trust. Measurement of domestic hot water consumption in buildings, DEFRA; 2008. [22] Global trends in sustainable energy investment. Analysis of trends and issues in the nancing of renewable energy and energy efciency, UNEP, SEFI, Bloomberg New Energy Finance; 2010.

allows a degree of thermal management which can be augmented by for example phase change materials based wall materials. However the common electricity market mechanism of hourly electricity pricing may inuence the benets such systems may have, especially when operating from ambient temperatures in the rst instance. Systems that have been operating for a time before the required start under a low cost electricity tariff inuenced by large amounts of non-dispatchable renewable energy generation will respond quicker and achieve greater benets for the building user. The smart grid must take account of the dynamics of all participants to maximise benets for all. This challenge is set to increase [22]. The global wind market is still growing (14% for 2009 over 2008) in the current economic down turn and investment in the complimentary Smart Grids (34% for 2009 over 2008) has been developed to balance demand side management, thermal power station response times etc. Thus there is potentially a new energy paradigm on the horizon when this is integrated with the necessary communication and control strategies to allow demand side management to balance non-dispatchable wind generation.

References
[1] Energy White Paper Our Energy Future. Creating a low carbon economy, UK Government; 2003. [2] Strbac Goran, Shakoor Anser, Black Mary, Pudjianto Danny, Bopp Thomas. Impact of wind generation on the operation and development of the UK electricity systems. Electr Pow Syst Res 2007;77(9):121427. [3] Barthelmie RJ, Murray F, Pryor SC. The economic benet of short-term forecasting for wind energy in the UK electricity market. Energy Policy 2008;36(5):168796. [4] Mueller Markus, Wallace Robin. Enabling science and technology for marine renewable energy. Energy Policy 2008;36(12):437682.