As part of Bridgend County Borough Council’s (BCBC) long-term vision to understand its decarbonisation pathway and set directional plans for success, the creation of a Local Energy Market (LEM) is considered to be a key foundation for the delivery of Net Zero.

BCBC partnered with Energy Systems Catapult to develop an expert platform to shape and inform the vision for a Bridgend LEM. This involved developing an initial systems architecture that maximised local resources to benefit Bridgend citizens, communities, and businesses.

Together BCBC and The Catapult scoped how a LEM could operate in parallel with national and UK services and policy, with cross-engagement opportunities where appropriate.

The Innovation

BCBC sought vision and design expertise to inform key short-term decision making which would realistically meet decarbonisation targets. The Catapult worked with BCBC to explore the path to a fully integrated, decentralised, net zero compliant local energy system.

This system featured increased renewable energy generation and provided increased flexibility using energy management systems and storage.

Energy Systems Catapult scenario planned the large-scale transformation required to achieve BCBC’s decarbonisation goals, considered the renewable energy products and services that may be required to get there, and set out the pathways and frameworks required to achieve local authority and partner goals.

The Challenge

Future-planning these complex concepts and the requirements for implementing LEMs are not easy exercises to undertake. Various dependencies, unknowns, and complex moving parts exist that affect scenario planning and long-term direction setting.

The indicated market, policy, and regulatory direction at a national level and a lack of clarity around how local markets will be allowed to function impacts their development. Local value created by things such as increased renewable energy generation and investments providing affordable clean energy may be enacted under different market conditions than currently exist. Potential changes include nodal pricing, and local flexibility markets led by the Distribution System Operator.

Considerations also needed to be made to ensure the proposed architecture did not create dependencies on proprietary software, networks or technologies.

The Solution

Using appropriate methods and tools, an initial system architecture was developed, defining the stakeholders, requirements, use cases, scenarios, and structures required to meet those goals. Relationships and interactions with other related systems, such as local energy systems and trading platforms were explored.

Energy Systems Catapult completed two activities to test and validate the system architecture and operational concepts:

• The Whole System Business Research Innovation for Decarbonisation Challenge (WBRID) project was used to cross-check the proposed system architecture, exploring whether the project could readily sit within the future Bridgend LEM architecture.
• The regulatory, policy, and market challenges associated with the Bridgend LEM were assessed, both today, and within the expected direction of travel for British national markets, drawing upon existing published work from ESC.

The output was an initial, high-level proposal that can be used to engage stakeholders, design future programmes of work, and form the basis of the future Bridgend LEM detailed design.

The Impact

• Bridgend and The Catapult’s work prepares the Borough to be ready and capable for regulatory changes occurring over the coming months and years.
• The long-term potential benefits of the shift to LEM for Bridgend, as they achieve parallel decarbonisation goals, include reduced energy bills for consumer and non-domestic properties, focused investment into the region, more renewable energy, and cleaner air.

Next Steps

There are four themes of recommended next steps for BCBC:

• Feasibility and Trade-off Studies, to determine the size of the potential local energy market, map different local market models which depend on decisions taken by the British Government and to assess viable business models for BCBC and other stakeholders with energy assets.
• System Development, to create a system roadmap for the Bridgend LEM that defines the innovation delivery pathway, to deliver the technical integration, and to continue developing the systems architecture through stakeholder engagement.
• Market, policy, and regulatory monitoring and analysis to engage with areas that have the potential to impact the Bridgend LEM, to deliver the integration associated with WBRID LEM and to integrate policies across housing, transport, planning, and energy to ensure maximum value for Bridgend.
• Collaboration and knowledge sharing by establishing a working group in LEM for local authorities and public bodies and to identify existing and upcoming LEM resources provided by, or available to, local authorities.

Energy Systems Catapult intends to engage further with DNOs, other local authorities, and those involved in policy, to shift the needle on the value of LEMs in Britain.