Your feedback will be greatly valued and this can be sent to - dquirk@dtu.dk.
*To see the latest update on the web, it is first worth clicking ‘ctrl, F5’ to clear your PC’s cache, otherwise an older version may be used.
Quick start guide
1) You can move around the screen and select option as is shown in the screenshot image below.
1) The app opens with a 60 MW a sub-sea interconnection cable providing all the Isle of Man’s electricity at 31 p/kWh (pence per unit) – the cost of purchasing and importing the power from the UK.
2) Go to Energy Storage & Export-Import and change Interconn. from 60 MW to 0 MW. You will see there is now an Electricity Demand Shortfall* of 358 GWh per year at the top of the screen meaning that none of the Island’s demand is being met. One of the goals is to get this number to 0 GWh. You can easily do this by changing interconnection back to 60 MW.
3) You will see that there is enough interconnection (green light) but Carbon emissions are still too high (red light). You can get further information by scrolling down to RESULTS.
4) Add some Power Generation e.g. 40 MW solar. In this case, see how the Cost of Electricity falls from 31 to 29 p/kWh as you are now generating a small amount of relatively cheap power on the Isle of Man. You can see the Proportion of costs in RESULTS. Note also that there is still Sufficient capacity of interconnection. If there is no interconnection and no energy storage, the Isle of Man grid would easily become overloaded with too much renewable energy when there is minimum electricity demand (c.20 MW).
5) Move the dials on Your Electricity Bill e.g. Quarterly Units of 500 kWh. In RESULTS, you will see that you will be paying £20 more per year (Annual penalty on your electricity bill, shown in red) compared to the current Manx electricity price of 28.5 p/kWh (look in Settings – gear icon near the top of the window). Even 28.5 p/kWh is high because the gas which is used to generate electricity at Pulrose power station is relatively expensive.
6) Add more Power Generation e.g. 120 MW wind. In this case, the Cost of Electricity falls from 29 to 17 p/kWh as you are now generating a significant amount of relatively cheap renewable power on the Isle of Man. Nonetheless, it is still necessary to export excess power (when the wind is generating more than is being used on the Isle of Man) and import power (when there is insufficient supply of electricity from wind and solar to meet demand). You can see the shortfall (99 GWh per year) by temporarily switching Interconn. to 0 MW. You will see in RESULTS that 60 MW interconnection is now Insufficient capacity (red light), which you can solve by increasing the capacity of Interconn. to 180 MW. The cost of this extra or larger subsea cable has to be paid for, as does the imported electricity, so the Cost of Electricity increases, in this case to 22 p/kWh.
7) One effective way of dealing with the mismatch between power supply (from variable wind and solar) and electricity demand (fluctuating on-Island consumption) is by adding some Energy Storage, e.g. 240 MWh (batteries and pumped hydro). Although storage requires investment this can be spread over, for example, 20 years. At the same time, very little expensive electricity has to be imported. Therefore, with 240 MWh storage the Cost of Electricity falls to 16 p/kWh. You can now reduce the amount of interconnection to 120 MW which in turn lowers the electricity cost to 14p/kWh. You will see in RESULTS that the Isle of Man has achieved greater than 100% Energy Self-Sufficiency, that the Annual saving on your electricity bill is £282 and that Carbon Emissions are now only 7000 tonnes CO2 per year, significantly less than present day (227,000 tonnes CO2 per year from burning gas at Pulrose).
8) Now try out other combinations of Power Generation, Storage and Interconn. to see if you can achieve better results. For example, you can reduce the amount of wind and solar power and then try adding other sources of power. The goals are to get to 100% or more self-sufficiency, as well as 22 p/kWh or less and no more than 15,000 tonnes CO2 emissions per year. Further information on the different sources of power and the power capacities available can be found in a dropdown by clicking on the question mark located between Tutorial and Sponsors near the top of the page**.
*It is important that there is no Electricity Demand Shortfall (i.e. 0 GWh is showing) otherwise the Cost of Electricity will be incorrect as the missing power has not been accounted for. The easiest way to ensure there is no shortfall, is to import electricity by choosing sufficient Interconn. capacity – 60, 120 or 180 MW. As you add renewable energy, you can reduce the size of interconnection by increasing the amount of Storage. The balance between these two options - Energy Storage & Export-Import - is a crucial part to finding the best solution for costs, emissions and energy self-sufficiency.
It is worth noting that the results from this sort of modelling are not always intuitive because of the complex way that variable amounts of renewable power interact with fluctuating demand, grid restrictions, energy storage and export-import decisions. The app is a simplification of the results of hundreds of thousands of numerical simulations (‘energy system models’) which require inputs in the form of hourly data over a full year of weather, daylight, electricity consumption and market prices. A simple example of the issue is that all power from a 20 MW wind farm on the Isle of Man can be used whereas a large part of the power from a 100 MW wind farm will be surplus to requirements and will have to be exported or, better still, stored for when it is needed. Even with a sizeable wind farm there will be times when insufficient electricity is being generated to meet demand, which is when power has to be regenerated from storage or it has to be imported.
A 10 MW wind farm on the Isle of Man will typically generate an average of 3-5 MW power or 20-45 MWh energy per year, as the strength of the wind varies. In this case, ‘10 MW’ refers to the maximum power the turbine or turbines can generate – when the wind is blowing hard. The ratio of the average power to the maximum power is known as the capacity factor (23%-51% in this example). Although somewhat cheaper to build, a 10 MW solar park will produce only on average 1 MW or 10 GWh per year because it has a lower capacity factor (11-12%). Strong sun is relatively rare and there is no sunlight at night. Each power source shown in the app has a different capacity factor, except for hydro, biomass and nuclear plants which can run at maximum power, provided there is sufficient water or fuel and whilst no servicing or maintenance is required.
**Additional documentation can be requested from dquirk@dtu.dk. Alternatively, please refer to the Knowledge Hub and News sections of this website where more information is available.
Abbreviations used
MW – megawatt (the sames as 1000 kilowatts, kW)
MWh – megawatt hours (the same as 1000 kilowatt hours, kWh - a ‘unit’ of electricity)
GWh – gigawatt hours (1 million kWh)
CO2 – carbon dioxide
Source
The Island Power App has been developed by David G. Quirk and Behzad Hosseinzadeh in 2024 on behalf of the Energy and Sustainability Centre Isle of Man and with the financial support of the Manx Lottery Trust.
