Accelerate progress towards a net zero world

NIA SSEN 0071 RESOP

Key Activities

Regional Energy System Optimisation Planning (RESOP) is a follow on from WSGSM 2 (NIA_SSEN_0043) which itself was a follow on from WSGSM (NIA_SSEN_0030). These projects have developed methodology for local area energy planning on a whole system basis. There are a few key activities that are taking place:

  • Develop the Local Energy Net Zero Accelerator (LENZA) tool, so that it can be used to create digital Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs).
  • Work with Scottish Water Horizons to enable a water source heat pump (WSHP) use case.
  • Work with Scottish Local Authorities (LAs) and the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to geographically display locations of potential Heat Networks.
  • Enable an API between LENZA and PowerFactory (the power system planning software from DigSILENT) to perform load flow analysis on Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs) placed within LENZA.
  • Make LENZA available to all Local Authorities within SSEN’s network area to increase testing, bug fixes and feature requests so that it becomes Business as Usual (BaU) ready.
  • Align LENZA with Distribution Future Energy Scenarios (DFES), so it can be used to support future DFES projections.

Expected Benefits

The main expected outcome of the project is to enable LENZA to create digital LAEPs at a higher granularity and greater accuracy than current methods used by consultants and to enable all Local Authorities within SSEN’s geography to make use of this functionality.

Progress

Significant progress has been achieved to date including:

  • Development of Digital LAEP functionality that allows bulk location of LCTs as well as a dashboard to review progress against targets.
  • Stakeholder engagement with Scottish Water Horizons that has produced a methodology to place WSHPs.
  • Stakeholder engagement with LAs and DESNZ and provision of Heat Network data for geo-spatial viewing.
  • Servers and security checks are in the process of being set up to enable APIs.
    LENZA has been offered to all LAs and rolled out to most of them.
  • Engagement with Regen on how LENZA can support DFES has been mapped out and DFES building blocks are now being incorporated by LENZA to facilitate this.

Project Budget

£2.9m

Start/End Date

October 2023 – October 2025

Project Manager

Rhys Williams