Energy and utilities

Around 21% of the UK's generated electricity comes from nuclear energy, but approximately half of this capacity is set to be retired by 2025. Facilitating new build power stations depends on the development of a new generation of smaller modular reactors with improved safety, efficiency and economic performance. But the more urgent need is for industry to formulate smart burden sharing arrangements, that adequately spread the construction risks, financial risks and the final cost to the consumer, since nuclear energy is currently capital cost intensive.

Decommissioning costs of existing nuclear energy infrastructure represent a large share of life cycle costs, as the safe handling, storage and disposal of radioactive materials must meet stringent health and safety rules and guidelines. The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) spends in excess of £3.3 billion ensuring the safe and efficient clean-up of the UK’s nuclear legacy. To understand how best to manage the increasing amount of waste, UK nuclear sites need to be able to measure the distribution and concentration of radioactive isotopes (radionuclides) accurately.

NPL works with the NDA and industry to develop new technologies for faster classification of radionuclides, and aims to develop the methods into accredited procedures, enabling the UK’s nuclear industry to achieve cost savings.

One of the biggest challenges in renewable energy is reducing capital expenditure and operational costs so that generators can become competitive. Wind and solar technologies in the UK are already achieving competitive market prices when compared with fossil fuel energy. However lifetime performance, and therefore the return on investment to operators and investors, is highly dependent on the resources available at the location and the conditions the technology will need to endure.

Innovations in non-destructive materials testing can reduce the cost of maintaining and replacing high-cost components and can improve the operations and maintenance strategy of offshore wind farms. NPL develops bespoke non-destructive testing products that can be applied and commercialised for specific applications.

Offshore wind installations have an impact on the marine environment during installation. However, the complex features of the marine environment affect how sound propagates and must be measured to assess and mitigate the impact while meeting legislative requirements. NPL leads collaborative research to develop standards on the measurement of radiated underwater sound from percussive pile driving.

Electricity grids are facing tumultuous challenges as increasing amounts of intermittent renewables are integrated into the grid system, and more distributed elements such as roof top solar panels, home battery storage, electric vehicles and smart devices are plugged in.

A distributed and complex energy system creates more instability in grid frequency at the distribution level and requires much smarter grid management. Multilateral projects, such as Smart Grids II led by NPL, are critical to ensuring robust planning and measurement of smart grids, ensuring a stable and high-quality power supply.

A shift in fuel sources towards biogas and hydrogen will challenge the gas networks with changes in potential leakage scenarios and corrosion control of the physical infrastructure. NPL can work with industry to develop novel inspection techniques and tools for condition monitoring and asset integrity. We can also support the operators with methodologies to extract added value from asset data, for example by developing novel algorithms for predictive maintenance.