Who are the key people or teams involved from each side?
The collaboration brings together expertise from both the Centre for Sectoral Economic Performance (CSEP) at Imperial College London and the Brunel Interdisciplinary Power Systems (BIPS) Research Centre at Brunel University London.
From Brunel’s side, the work is led by Dr Marko Aunedi, Senior Lecturer and Principal Investigator on the project, and Research Fellow Dr Daniil Hulak. Marko’s expertise in modelling and optimisation of low-carbon energy systems and Daniil’s background in power-system economics are combined to investigate the system integration of the tidal stream resources in the context of the GB electricity system.
What is the main research topic or project focus under this collaboration?
The collaboration focuses on advancing analytical and optimisation techniques to understand the potential role of tidal stream generation within the future GB power system. One significant part of the research has been dedicated to tidal resource assessment based on multiple geospatial and oceanographic datasets, including GEBCO bathymetry and TPXO tidal data. Our work combines the assessment of tidal energy resources combined with the seabed and technical constraints, access conditions, and other financial considerations. In parallel, we have developed an open-source power system optimisation model to investigate the operational and economic implications of integrating tidal energy across multiple future scenarios. This includes a range of sensitivity analyses around the availability of renewable energy sources, deployment of flexibility options, and specific regional conditions.
How does this research align with CSEP’s mission?
This collaboration directly supports CSEP’s mission to help improve the competitiveness of the UK economy and drive sustainable economic growth by advancing understanding of an emerging technology sector with potential for global impact. Tidal energy represents a field where the UK has strong natural resources, established research capabilities and the possibility to build international leadership. Our ambition is to provide quantitative evidence on system integration benefits of tidal energy resources that could support their efficient integration into the zero-carbon generation mix.
How does this project contribute to sustainability, innovation or social good?
Although tidal power generation remains less mature than wind and solar technologies with a significantly lower installed capacity, it offers some comparative advantages to variable renewable technologies because of fully predictable generation profiles, which could help to improve the resilience of the future GB power system and the sensitivity to extreme weather events. Our research aims to address a core challenge: how to integrate tidal stream resources effectively and cost-efficiently into a low-carbon energy system dominated by variable renewable energy sources. By building the analysis on detailed real-life datasets, the project provides an evidence-based assessment of locations and circumstances where tidal energy could deliver the greatest system-level benefits. Early findings indicate that certain UK coastal zones may offer particularly favourable combinations of tidal resource quality, system value and connection feasibility, suggesting that targeted deployment in these areas could support both decarbonisation and system stability. These results have the potential to inform future policy discussions, guide investment decisions and support the UK’s broader Net Zero ambitions by informing the energy policy and providing efficient investment signals.
What are the expected outcomes or impacts of this collaboration?
A key outcome of the collaboration is the generation and exchange of knowledge in the area of tidal energy integration across academic institutions, industry partners and policymakers. This includes ongoing discussions with stakeholders such as the Marine Energy Council, Guernsey Electricity and other sector representatives. The research outcomes are also being prepared for presenting in peer-reviewed publications to disseminate the project findings among the academic and research communities.