RIDES: Rural Industrial DEcarbonisation Support (SIF Round 4 – Challenge 3)

Project Overview

Description

Challenge 3 – Embedding Resilience

Focus Area 2 – Transition planning for an energy system with reducing natural gas demand

As rural industries decarbonise, they may find this transition challenging. This is where Network operators can provide valuable support to help them make the right decisions. Rural networks are often characterised by radial circuits with limited capacity. These circuits are harder and more expensive to reinforce. RIDES will develop a tool to show rural industries their potential decarbonisation pathways. It will also help network companies to understand what their future investments needs will be, allowing efficient, coordinated investment by network companies and their customers. RIDES will smooth and accelerate the path to net zero for rural industry.

Expected Benefits

We expect benefits to include financial, environmental and innovation in new market products and processes as follows:

Financial – future reductions in the cost of operating the network

Forecasts of future load on networks depend on a range of variables from economics, technology and societal trends, legislation and international markets. Any method which reduced the sources of error on these forecasts carries value. RIDES will reduce the uncertainty associated of the decarbonisation choices that industrial customers will make.

Accurate forecasting translates into driving benefits through:

Informed deferment of capital investments.
Right sizing of reinforcements making “build once” a more realistic option.
Greater certainty of forecast use of flexibility services.
Longer deferment because of greater certainty.

Financial – cost savings per annum on energy bills for consumers

Industrial sites that fully understand their options for decarbonising will be able to make informed decisions about the degree to which they can change the timing of their operations to take advantage of time of use tariffs or to offer flexibility services such as demand turn down and therefore will be able to reduce their bills.

Environmental – carbon reduction – direct CO₂ savings per annum

The RIDES tool will facilitate decarbonisation of industrial sites. On the assumption that this will happen eventually, the carbon benefits will be measured as the carbon saved by accelerating against a counterfactual of not providing assistance to these industries.

New to market product and processes

RIDES will deliver a first of its kind software tool and data sharing framework that will enable rural industrial sites to plan their decarbonisation journey economically and give visibility to network companies of future demand profiles in an energy system with reducing natural gas demand.

Progress

RIDES is in the planning stage, prior to becoming a live project in February 2025.

Funding

Total project cost has been set at £123,060, of which £12,405 will be met through compulsory contribution (10%). We are requesting £110,655 of SIF funding.