Network investment is key to Wales’s decarbonisation and economic ambitions – and ensuring the investment is coherent, efficient, and timely – requires understanding the range of Net Zero pathways available to Wales’s 2050 energy system.

The Welsh Government appointed Energy Systems Catapult, as an independent and trusted body, to develop scenarios of the various paths Wales could take to decarbonise the energy system, drawing on the perspectives of a wide range of people across Wales.

The Future Energy Grid Wales project will inform Future Wales: the National Plan 2040′, and provide robust evidence to enable network operators to plan and build the networks we will need for Net Zero and the interim 2030 targets.

Wales aims to be the first country in the UK to have a joint approach to developing gas and electricity networks. All the energy network operators in Wales, and the regulator Ofgem, have agreed to work with the Welsh Government to develop a long-term plan for energy networks.

• The Welsh Government will take the strategic lead on the project, ensuring its thinking fits with  policies and priorities.
• The network owners will provide resource to the process and use its outputs to inform their network plans.
• Ofgem will provide independent and impartial advice to support the development of options.
• Energy Systems Catapult will develop the whole system Net Zero scenarios, drawing on their extensive modelling expertise and their independence to facilitate the work. This will make sure that the interests of Wales, and not those of any one organisation, are at the heart of this work.

The work will be carried out alongside the programme of detailed Local Area Energy Planning work across Wales, and the two projects will use the same evidence and assumptions.

The Integrating Tidal Energy into the European Grid (ITEG) project aims to generate a clean, predictable energy supply from renewable sources in areas with weak electricity networks.   

Energy Systems Catapult is partnering with 15 cooperating organisations on this €11 million initiative, which is spearheaded by Interreg North-West Europe and led by the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) at their world-leading tidal test facility in the Orkney Islands off Scotland. 

One innovative, multi-vector solution being tested by UK SME Orbital Marine Power. Their Orbital O2 next-generation 2MW floating tidal energy converter has been installed along with AREVA H2Gen’s new 500kW hydrogen electrolyser and a bespoke energy management system. This uses excess renewable electricity generation to create hydrogen that can be stored for use at a later date. 

The consortium needed a partner to analyse the impact on the whole energy system – helping to create a robust business case for deployment at scale and to identify productive routes for technology development.  

Energy Systems Catapult is drawing on:

• Local Energy Systems Modelling of Orkney using our EnergyPath® Networks tool
• National Energy Systems Modelling for UK and European analysis using Energy Systems Modelling Environment
• Systems Engineering team is looking at integration between the tidal turbine, electrolyser and local energy system to optimise for technical and economic performance
• Clean Tech Engineering expertise in Renewables & Marine Energy, Networks, Energy Storage and Hydrogen teams are contributing technical expertise
• Consumer Insights are supporting social studies with the local community.