Utility Week

UTILITY WEEK | NOVEMBER 2022 | 27 Technology 95% of customers are covered via sensing that spans power quality, capacity, and voltage. Monitoring capacity The sensors have been designed to allow us to e ciently touch the network – just once – to solve problems of today, tomorrow, and those we're set to face in the coming decades. As well as monitoring power quality, volt- age and thermal capacity, the sensors we've chosen also detect cable faults before they cause a customer power outage. If you can accurately measure that e ect, you can not only detect that the cable is going to fail in a matter of days, but pinpoint where it will happen. That fundamentally changes our response to faults – from dig- ging up holes in the middle of the night, to being able to intervene and - x the cable before it turns everybody's lights out. That is e ectively the technology Electric- ity North West has developed with Kelvatek to deploy on the low-voltage network at huge scale. Electricity North West has around 100,000 separate LV feeders. If we are to invest in those, which do we replace, which feeders are approaching end of life, and which are approaching capacity limits? How do you combine those di erent investment drivers to choose the most e - cient programme to keep costs as low as possible for customers? Our strategy with monitoring is to think about the full range of problems and invest e ciently. A selective sensor rollout We see the adoption of two low-carbon tech- nologies concentrated in urban and semi- urban areas. Therefore, our focus in the past few years have been Greater Manchester and large population centres in Lancashire, investing to unlock capacity now for those customers who are adopting now – and less in rural areas where EV adoption is slower. If we look at Greater Manchester, for example, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority has a very strong decarbonisation strategy. They're investing heavily in social housing decarbonisation and are really pushing the clean air agenda through mak- ing Manchester an EV-friendly city. They have the political drive, and our role is to facilitate in terms of network capacity. Our analysis reveals where technolo- gies will cluster, and which customers will adopt - rst. This guides our sensor rollout programme and focuses on urban and semi- urban areas - rst. We expect that by the end of ED2 only the 5% of customers living in predominantly remote rural areas will not have sensors - tted. In such areas, low- carbon technologies are unlikely to cluster and the customer bene- ts from sensing are much•lower. Data-sharing strategy In our ED2 plan, we've committed to publish all of the data we obtain from the network – I think it's the bedrock of how – exibility will help underpin the a ordability of net zero. We will share both our network models alongside condition and load data to see where network needs lie and where oppor- tunities are. This is a tremendously useful source of information – for example, for battery storage and – exibility operators, or people bringing real innovation around – exibility. Maintaining trust Network businesses occupy a responsible position as monopoly providers and are under strong regulation from Ofgem. They are a trusted voice regionally to help busi- nesses, residential customers, and key stake- holders – like local authorities – navigate the complex commercial and technical net-zero road ahead and focus on things that are no regrets and deliver real bene- ts. Assisting them and boosting their con- dence to sup- port the communities they represent is a really important role for Electricity North West. While a lot of businesses are very pas- sionate about the net-zero agenda, they can be very nervous about investing in the wrong technology. I have had the privilege of meeting with many of our commercial customers, for example supermarket energy managers. They have, as a group of businesses, experi- mented in energy generation and are looking at EV charging and the – exibility that they can o er energy markets. However, quite o˜ en they've had a bad experience – such as investing in something that's not quite worked – so they've become very cautious about investing capital in new services, – ex- ibility, and technologies. They value the DNO's trusted and impar- tial voice to help them understand. We only want to touch the network once, while they only want to invest once and do the right thing for their customers, reputation, busi- ness, and employees. Therefore, working with local authorities and providing non- commercial guidance is very welcome. Ensuring value for money When you - t monitors to a low-voltage feeder – accurately measuring what's happening, and the e ects on cables – you can normally create around 20% extra headroom. If you think about that in terms of the decarbonisa- tion challenge, 20% of 100,000 low-voltage feeders is absolutely huge. It brings the cost of reinforcement down signi- cantly and allows customers to adopt low-carbon tech- nology now. The most e cient means of delivering capacity is through assets that have already been paid for by customers. Monitoring aug- ments the capacity of the assets and unlocks existing capacity. That's where you get real bene- ts. The innovation programmes the DNOs have implemented over the past - ve years are already yielding new, genuinely world- leading, technologies. The value of these manifests in unlocking additional capacity from existing assets, as well as visibility of data and the longer-term value derived from reliability and asset management. In my view, as we approach ED3 most DNOs will have deployed sensing at consid- erable scale. That puts companies in a far better position to propose even more e cient investment programmes to Ofgem. Steve Cox, distribution system operation director, Electricity North West In association with In this report: Key challenges posed by LV network monitoring Electricity North West's visibility strategy How have Kelvatek and Electricity North West rolled out LV network sensing Ensuring value for money Safeguarding both public and network health E X P L A I N S Sensing underground assets: LV network monitoring in ED2 Download the report Download the report Sensing Underground Assets: LV Network Monitoring in ED2 free at: https://utilityweek.co.uk/sensing- underground-assets-lv-network-monitoring-in-ed2/ "As well as monitoring power quality, voltage and thermal capacity, the sensors we've chosen also detect cable faults before they cause a customer power outage." Steve Cox, distribution system operation director, Electricity North West "As well as monitoring power quality, voltage and thermal capacity, the sensors we've chosen also detect cable faults before they cause a customer power outage." , distribution system operation director, Electricity North West in association with

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