What is the Whole Energy Systems Accelerator?

The Whole Energy Systems Accelerator (WESA) is a world-first energy innovation test and evaluation facility, enabling interactions between homes, energy networks, and market & policy frameworks to be tested in real-time and across a range of potential future energy system and market scenarios.

WESA combines Energy Systems Catapult’s real world test environment – our Living Lab with 1000s of digitally connected homes – with PNDC’s unique power networks demonstration facility to research, test and accelerate multi-vector energy systems that accelerate the scale up of the innovations needed to reach Net Zero.

How does WESA work?

WESA works by extracting live energy data from homes in the Living Lab that are using smart, clean tech innovations that could provide flexibility to the grid. The data is sent to PNDC and aggregated to simulate a single street or neighbourhood – all in real time.

PNDC takes the data and uses a real time digital simulator to demonstrate the impact on different network configurations and replicates those electricity loads on their real-life network test centre near Glasgow – to understand the physical impact on the electricity grid.

Network impact data is then fed into the Catapult’s market emulator, created by our Systems Integration team, which can model and simulate various energy system conditions and test out different network charging mechanisms that might be used in future – such as dynamic or RAG pricing. The Living Lab homes might then receive a price signal in real-time prompting a change in home energy usage – which provides a flexibility service to the grid.

The Benefits

The Whole Energy Systems Accelerator combines expertise across electrical power systems, cybersecurity, whole energy systems and consumer insight to enable the testing of interactions between activity in homes, energy networks, and market & policy frameworks to be tested concurrently across many different future energy scenarios.

This makes it possible to test the physics, human behaviour, technology, and market aspects of new energy solutions concurrently and rapidly, thereby supporting the creation of a robust and affordable Net Zero energy system that considers consumers’ needs.

• Clean tech innovators – testing smart products and services with real people to ensure they not only reduce carbon emissions and provide a great consumer experience but also work with the physics of the electricity system – to deliver more flexible and robust physical and market systems fit for Net Zero.
• Network Operators – testing the value of smart products and services in providing flexibility services to the electricity grid by testing and validating technologies in real time interactions between homes, networks and market & policy frameworks.
• Flexibility – unlock the value of flexibility, by capitalising on the amazing new products and services being developed by UK innovators, in order to improve the performance of existing energy assets and infrastructure, support grid balancing, help avoid network constraints and delayed connections.

Partners

WESA industrial partners will be drawn from the heat, transport, electricity and communications sectors, delivering an unparalleled mix of technology and commercial expertise, to steer WESA operations and provide routes to commercial exploitation. Significant private sector interest is emerging from large energy companies, technology and equipment developers, SMEs and consumer groups.