Utility Week

36 | NOVEMBER 2022 | UTILITY WEEK Analysis Re-reading smart meter data to find space for low-carbon technologies Aggregating smart meter data at the feeder level may offer network companies the chance to facilitate the mass take-up of low-carbon technologies. Stuart Stone reports on one DNO's trial. T he company formerly known as West- ern Power Distribution, which since 21 September has adopted the branding of parent company National Grid, is respon- sible for delivering electricity to eight million homes and businesses across the Midlands, the South West, and south Wales. It has launched a smart meter data scheme that it hopes can facilitate the mass adoption of electric vehicle (EV) chargers, heat pumps and solar panels by its customers. The Smart Meter Innovations and Test Network (SMITN) aims to provide National Grid network planners with enhanced smart meter data to help them manage load when connecting low carbon technologies. While smart meter technology is the same for all distribution network operators (DNOs), as reported by Utility Week in July 2018 Western Power Distribution, as it was then, changed its data privacy agreement with Ofgem governing how it manages the privacy of customer data. While the company originally aggregated load data for all customers on an a low-volt- age feeder, National Grid can now aggregate at feeder section level and still maintain data privacy. Electricity North West and UK Power Networks also do this. Under its SMITN, National Grid will both gauge the quality of power supplied – by looking at average voltage values and how frequently high and low-voltage alarms are triggered due to sags and swells in voltage on the network – and improve visibility of customer phases and feeders to allow more effective load balancing and determine where customers are connecting low-carbon technologies. The scheme will obtain and process new data until the end of 2022, with final findings expected in early 2023. Unused feature According to Jenny Woodruff, SMITN project lead and National Grid innovation engineer, while there are some new items of data avail- able, the project will largely revolve around processing data already available from smart meters in new ways. For example, National Grid will be recon- figuring its approach to capture one min- ute average voltage data. Though smart meters default to capturing voltage data at half-hourly average resolution, they can be configured to capture one minute average voltage data, Woodruff explains – however, they can only capture three days' worth before the memory is full and earlier record- ings are overwritten. "This is a feature of smart meters that has always been there but we have not used it previously," Woodruff tells Utility Week Inno- vate. "Similarly, our data privacy plan used to be restricted so that we aggregated load data for all the customers on a low-voltage feeder. Now we can aggregate customer data within sections of a feeder, allowing us a higher resolution view of loads while still protecting customer privacy." National Grid currently has 10,759 heat pumps and 58,416 EV chargers connected to its network. The firm also predicts it will connect 1,600 EV chargers every working day by 2028. While connection applications have traditionally been assessed by planners, more accurate data will enable customers to use self-serve tools to determine what they are able to plug in, and simplify the process of connecting such low carbon technologies. Amassing "good quality data" will also enable National Grid to carry out better net- work planning amid mass connection. "We can do it safely, we can automate it, we can make sure phases are more balanced, we can make future networks more efficient, reducing the impact of faults and even pre- dicting future faults," Woodruff says. "Ulti- mately, all this will save money and deliver a better service for our customers." Phase data clarity According to Woodruff, SMITN is investigat-

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