Four National Grid projects have secured more than £5 million
through the next stage of Ofgem's Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF)
programme, including a project that could reintroduce live
working on the UK transmission network for the first time in a
generation supporting faster delivery and reducing system costs.
The projects span both the Discovery and Beta phases of the SIF
programme, which supports the development and testing of new
technologies and approaches to help transform Great Britain's
energy networks.
National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) has been awarded
£4,947,031 for the DEsign for Live Line Technology Acceleration
(DELLTA) three-year Beta phase project.
Maintenance on transmission assets is typically carried out
during planned outages, when circuits are taken out of service,
which can be costly and difficult to schedule. By enabling
maintenance on live assets, DELLTA could reduce outages, maintain
network capacity and help accelerate vital grid reinforcement.
It follows a successful Alpha phase and will see the project
continue to develop techniques that could enable maintenance to
be safely carried out on high-voltage transmission networks while
they remain energised.
DELLTA is being led by National Grid Electricity Transmission in
partnership with Frazer-Nash Consultancy, The University of
Manchester, Allied Insulators, The University of Liverpool and
SSEN Transmission as well as the Budapest University of
Technology and Economics to learn global best practice.
During its Alpha phase, the project successfully demonstrated a
proposed live insulator replacement method on a de-energised
network. The new funding will support a three-year Beta phase
which will further develop the advanced equipment, procedures and
training required for live working.
The project's main focus will be the live replacement of overhead
line insulators, but will also explore other potential live
working uses. It will see a team being trained in carrying out
live working, with the project culminating in a demonstration of
techniques and technologies on NGET's network.
The overall ambition of the DELLTA project is for live working to
be a business-as-usual tool for the transmission network.
NGET is also a partner on the Quantum optimisation for future gas
network design project, which is being led by National Gas and
has been awarded £616,558 of SIF Alpha phase funding.
The project will look to develop a quantum computing inspired
optimisation approach to improve outage planning in gas
transmission, but also has the potential to be applied across
electricity networks, supporting whole-system planning and
improving efficiency.
Neil McClymont, Head of Innovation at National Grid
Electricity Transmission, said:
As demand for electricity grows, innovation is essential in
helping us futureproof the network. These projects will help us
explore new technologies, techniques and approaches that can
support a more flexible and resilient network.
The DELLTA project is particularly exciting as it has the
potential to transform how we work by developing the equipment
and techniques needed to safely carry out maintenance on the
transmission network while assets remain in service, reducing the
need for planned outages and minimising associated costs.
The projects are funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an
Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK.
National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) has been
awarded almost £550,000 for three projects.
DISPATCH, which stands for Data-Integrated Systems for Power
Transmission and Community Heat, will investigate how the siting
of data centres could have spin-off benefits. It will examine if
medium-size centres can provide low-temperature waste heat to
benefit households with extra needs, and look at the potential of
sharing flexibility service income with heat networks.
SOS Racer (Security of Supply - Revised Approach to Consider
Embedded Resources) will assess how battery storage, solar and
wind farms could provide additional assurance that the
electricity system can be secure at times of peak demand. It will
examine how distributed demand-side flexibility can also inform
future resilience, planning and market frameworks.
The third NGED funding award is for the Innovation Delivery Group
(IDG) charter discovery project looking at decentralised system
balancing.
The IDG, which is chaired by National Grid Electricity
Distribution's DSO managing director Cathy McClay, with Rebecca
Beresford of the National Energy System Operator (NESO) as vice
chair, will set out clear delivery pathways and identify gaps in
the products, services and capabilities needed for decentralised
system balancing. These findings will help inform decisions on
which future innovation projects could best address those gaps.
Emily Spearman, Director of Innovation at National Grid
Electricity Distribution, said:
These projects highlight how innovation can help tackle some of
the biggest challenges facing the future energy system, from
strengthening security of supply and enabling decentralised
system balancing to creating wider benefits for customers and
communities.
By working with partners across the sector, we can turn new ideas
into practical solutions that support a more resilient, flexible
and affordable electricity network.
