Utility Week - authoritative, impartial and essential reading for senior people within utilities, regulators and government
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/613137
UTILITY WEEK | 11TH - 17TH DECEMBER 2015 | 23 Finance & Investment ELECTRICITY NIC-winning projects Celsius, Electricity North West This project, in partnership with UK Power Networks, is designed to release extra capacity from existing assets by managing the operational temperature of distribution substation assets and delivering new solu- tions to managing thermal pinch points. Extra capacity would reduce long-term costs for customers and avoid early asset replacement. £4.7 million Fitness, Scottish Power Transmission Future Intelligent Transmission Network Substation (Fitness) is intended to create Great Britain's first live multi-vendor digital substation instru- mentation system to protect, monitor and control the transmission network using digital communication over fibre. This would replace cop- per hard wiring, reduce cost, risk and environmental impact, and increase flexibility, controllability and availability. £8.3 million 10 Angle-DC, Scottish Power Manweb Would demonstrate network reinforcement by converting an existing 33kV AC circuit to DC operation for use by DNOs as an efficient solution to create additional network capacity and help manage network perfor- mance. £13.1 million NeSTS, Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission The New Suite of Transmission Structures project would create a new breed of overhead line supports that are smaller, better for the environ- ment and could result in financial savings for customers. £6.6 million Future networks project development manager Frank Clion said: "We started the initial design for the project two years ago and we have inves- tigated a wide range of potential structure types from around the world. SHE transmission director Dave Gardner said: "Our transmission network operates in some of the most remote and challenging landscapes in the country. The new design will help the construction of essential new overhead lines and, due to their smaller size and simpler construction, it could reduce the environmental impact and minimise disruption to local communities." OSEAIT, National Grid Electricity Transmission Offgrid Substation Environment for the Acceleration of Innovative Tech- nologies would modify an existing 400kV substation into a field trial facil- ity. The facility would replicate a live substation environment to overcome operational barriers associated with implementing innovative methods and technologies on the network. £12.0 million National Grid UK executive director John Pettigrew said: "The funding from Ofgem will help us get these new technologies out of the lab and into the business sooner, so consumers can really feel the benefit." Projects that failed to receive funding Evolution, Scottish Power Distribution Evolution would have trialled the UK's first concept of the Distribution System Operator role. It would have demonstrated how operating a "localised balancing market" could reduce customer bills through effi- cient provision of services and optimised network performance. Funding requested £6.1 million Telecoms, Western Power Distribution Template for a Low Carbon Future Telecoms Template would have defined communications solutions to support smarter electricity networks. It would have built on knowledge from global experience to test technol- ogy performance against smart grid criteria. It also would have delivered a suite of design templates and a soware tool to facilitate informed strategy decisions. Funding requested £12.6 million the projects were fully funded, but Northern Gas Networks (NGN) only received £0.7 mil- lion of the £1.1 million it requested to build the first scalable city-based compressed natural gas fuelling station. NGN will now have until the new year to decide if it wishes to progress with the project with the money that has been made available. Winning projects include an explora- tion of how to minimise the cost, in time and money, of new connections; building a commercial demonstration plant to pro- duce renewable low-carbon methane; and developing, installing and demonstrating a flexible "real-time" network to test new tech- nologies and infrastructure. Although individual companies have been awarded funds, a key condition of the competition is that the sharing is learned. Frerk said: "As with all the projects we have funded, we expect to see learning from these projects being shared across industry and are pleased to see many of the earlier pro- jects being rolled out across companies and delivering real benefits for consumers." Late last month the network compa- nies gathered for their annual Low Carbon Networks and Innovation conference to disseminate the findings from previous inno- vation projects. There was optimism among delegates about meeting the challenges a low-carbon future will bring to running the networks, but also an acknowledge- ment that many of the answers are yet to be discovered. What is clear is these types of innova- tion projects can cut costs for consumers. UK Power Networks' £28.3 million Low Carbon London project has helped it save £43 mil- lion in network investment over the next eight years. Northern Powergrid's £28.6 mil- lion Customer-Led Network Revolution has an even wider potential impact. The com- pany says the project has opened the door to up to £26 billion-worth of net benefits to Great Britain by 2050. NIC IN NUMBERS 4 applications 3 winning applications £18m available £17.9m awarded £19m from network licen- sees and partners 7 applications 5 winning applications £81 available £44.9m awarded £19.4m from network licen- sees and partners Gas Electricity