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20 | 18TH - 24TH SEPTEMBER 2015 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Project length: 18 months Status: analysis stage; due for completion December 2015 Estimated cost: £9 million Funding from LCNF: £9 million SSE Power Distribution (SSEPD) began the My Electric Avenue project, led by EA Tech- nology, with the aim of providing a solution to the potential impact that the recharging of an increasing number of electric vehi- cles (EVs) may have on the local electricity network. As the number of EVs grows, a point will be reached when the network starts to expe- rience problems. The traditional approach to dealing with that would be to react aer the problem had arisen, and that reaction would be effectively to overlay the cable networks, putting in new transformers, which is costly and causes disruption to customers. SSEPD is using clusters of at least ten neighbours, each of whom is driving an EV for 18 months, to simulate the patterns of EV charging expected by 2030. The results will allow energy companies to plan for such future scenarios, both in the UK and internationally. The company's head of future networks, Stewart Reid, says: "One of the starting points for using a project like this is antici- pating when you're going to need it. There's no point in waiting until a fuse blows to say 'we've got a problem here'. "One of the beauties of this solution is that it gives you that flexibility so that if the EV problem is only short term, you put in a low cost opex-based solution instead of a long-term capital-based solution. "What we're doing is effectively putting systems in place that allow us to get vis- ibility of our systems so we can anticipate where the problems are." The project is now at the stage of ana- lysing the data gathered about people's charging habits and the impact on the local electricity networks. The knowledge gained is being shared with DNOs, all other stake- holders, and the public. Scottish and South Energy Power Distribution: My Electric Avenue Project length: four years Status: complete Estimated cost: £3 million Funding from LCNF: £3 million Through the Lincolnshire Low Carbon Hub project, Western Power Distribution (WPD) sought to explore how the existing electric- ity network could be developed to deliver low-carbon electricity to customers without the need for network reinforcement. Innovation and low-carbon networks engineer Philip Bale says: "The main aspect of the Low Carbon Hub was trying to unlock capacity for new distributed generation con- nections. We have traditional methods that we can use to reinforce the network, but they were proving to be prohibitively high cost for those connections, with very few of them coming through to fruition." As part of the project, WPD developed six complementary project techniques to allow more generation to connect to the electricity network. These are: • network enhancements, building addi- tional functionality into the network; • commercial agreements, developing new commercial arrangements (alternative connections agreements) between DNOs and generation developers; • dynamic voltage control, measuring net- work voltage to balance demand and generation; • 33kV active network ring, improving vis- ibility of power flows and voltage profiles to give the DNO greater control; • flexible AC transmission system device, improving control over network voltage and reducing network losses by balancing circuit-reactive power flows; • dynamic systems ratings, using code to calculate maximum operating limits of windfarms. WPD has already shared the knowledge gleaned from each of the methods devel- oped in Low Carbon Hub with other DNOs and wider stakeholders throughout the pro- ject. The company says much of the research will be used to help inform future innova- tion projects. Commercial arrangements were a partic- ularly popular aspect of the research. WPD says it has committed to implement alterna- tive connections across all four of its licence areas, with 11 new zones using alternative connections agreements due to be up and running by 2023. Western Power Distribution: Low Carbon Hub