Member Article

Northumbria University develops groundbreaking grid capacity calculator

Academics at Northumbria University have developed a tool to predict the impact that electric cars will have on the nation’s power supplies.

The ‘grid capacity calculator’, considers future electricity needs by taking a measurement of an area’s existing energy consumption, and the calculating the likely future demand for and impact of having increasing numbers of electric cars plugged in for recharging.

The project was led by Dr Ghanim Putrus, reader in Electrical Power Engineering in the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, who decided to create the easy to use tool to help policy makers prepare for the increase in electric vehicles and how the need to charge them will affect the national grid.

Dr Petris said: “This tool will help to build the infrastructure around electric cars and can be used inside and outside the region, as well as in international contexts.

“Any electricity usage scenario can be tested using this tool, giving a picture of what can happen to existing grid infrastructure and helping to plan future power networks or smart grids.”

Northumbria University developed the new grid capacity calculator in collaboration with the Charge Your Car project, which is currently installing electric vehicle points across the North East.

The region has been chosen as the UK’s first designated low carbon economic area, and a number of measures to support this have been implemented. This includes the installation of 1,000 electric car charging points by 2013.

It is hoped that once the necessary infrastructure is in place, more individuals will choose to switch from petrol or diesel cars to electric cars, adding more pressure to the grid as people charge their vehicles.

The new tool will enable informed planning of electric vehicle infrastructure, and will also be applicable to all regions across the UK.

The tool is the result of teamwork involving Dr Sara Walker (School of the Built and Natural Environment), Dr David Johnston and Mr Edward Bentley (School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences). The team is currently discussing a follow up project with Charge your Car, which will develop the tool further to allow analysis of ‘smart charging’ of electric vehicles.

The team are also involved in a similar European project to address ‘smart grids solutions’ for future power networks, and other joint projects on electric vehicles with the School of Design.

It is hoped that these projects and other ongoing research will put Northumbria University at the forefront of research into a new generation of transport and the supporting infrastructure (smart grids).

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .