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DATA NETWORK / 19 / SEPTEMBER 2017 analysis. Many of the Distribution Network Opera- tors (DNOs) have now set out their approach to how they transition to a Distribution System Operator (DSO). Collectively too, through the Energy Network Associations' Open Networks project, there is a consistent aspiration to deliver greater opportunities for customers and to maximise the potential of new technology to bring about more ef- € cient networks. Automation has been an area where net- work companies and the supply chain have forged a new way of working to address the speci€ c circumstances of individual assets. In 2014 UK Power Networks set ambitious targets for automation across its large footprint, requiring a bespoke solution that could adapt to the diverse environments in which their switching points and substa- tions work. As the industry looks ahead, it is not just the task of the network operators to estab- lish the systems of the future. Their supply chain must also reshape itself, to be nimble and to have the same customer focus that a DSO does with energy consumers. Supported by the data on system use and asset performance, increased Œ exibility is already being utilised through demand side response for commercial and industrial customers, which is unlocking energy sav- ings. Aggregators are supporting this too by enabling the collective potential of multiple customers shiŽ ing demand to make the most of network infrastructure e' cien- cies and reducing the need for additional capacity. Storage: a crucial role Storage is the hot topic for technology developments and there is widespread speculation about its potential. Continued improvements mean it would be wrong to suggest that low cost and e' cient storage of renewable electricity is a holy grail, but within the developments in battery technol- ogy lie solutions to a number of problems. With around 550MW of storage due to come on the system by 2020, there is clearly great progress being made and this will continue as the sector bene€ ts from the Government's £9m challenge fund to bring costs down. However, for the storage market to be fully e˜ ective, especially delivering against the needs of multiple parties, there needs to be a much greater level of informa- tion available about what is being generated and consumed, when and where at the distribution level. The amount of distributed generation connected to the network is at a level far greater than was anticipated this decade. Almost one million homes with solar panels contribute to the 28GW of generation that has been connected to the distribution network. To have achieved that without major net- work reinforcement highlights e˜ ective net- work management and the role of new tech- nology in maximising the use of existing capacity. Network companies have worked jointly with developers, communities and consumers to engineer ways of operating, using new technology and supporting this growth in distributed generation at a time of increasingly diverse demand patterns. Vast amounts of data At Network's Asset Performance Conference in September the role of data will be a key topic of discussion. The networks sector, and therefore its supply chain, is moving from an era of not having the data neces- sary to support future energy services, to one of having such vast amounts that it will be complicated to process into actionable decisions at scale. At almost 1,500 network monitoring locations around the UK, Lucy Electric is gathering 85 billion data points on behalf of DNOs. This has been built up over a number of years as part of our Gridkey low voltage monitoring technology which was initially developed through the Innovation Funding Incentive mechanism as DNOs recognised the future need for data. Speaking at the CIRED conference in June, Scottish Power Energy Networks' CEO, Frank Mitchell, set out his ambition for the DNO to roll out low voltage monitoring to all of its 22,000 secondary substations. This undertaking, and the data they would be able to use, has the potential to be extremely valuable for a number of purposes. As part of our role as a solutions partner for similar DNO projects, we have provided both the data centre and the analytics on their behalf. This in turn has provided some valuable learning about where we see this data o˜ ering the most actionable decisions across a number of asset-orientated roles. The information can give insight about losses, power quality and faults, as well as being an input for network planning. Ahead of the Asset Performance Confer- ence we have been looking at how a DNO can understand what its priorities should be for data. Operational asset managers may want di˜ erent things than those us- ing SCADA systems, and the future asset planning teams may approach the informa- tion another way to the innovation teams. Key to meeting the objectives of all these constituent parts of asset performance in a DNO, and certainly a DSO, is separating the actionable data into valuable information they can interpret. For the network CEO who wants a morn- ing dashboard of performance, faults and customer interruptions, interpreting this extra data will be essential. A complex debate At a time when there is so much discussion around the future of our energy system, questions about how processes, procedures and relationships will change is a complex debate, with many answers. Informing those answers requires valuable data that companies can act upon. Engineers, innovators and academ- ics, working collaboratively, can achieve great things by sharing meaningful data to develop new solutions. In the same way that Œ exibility is at the heart of industry and government thinking, it is also the right way to approach learning. You can't predict everything and nor can you know exactly what data will be needed. What can be done is to capture it, and interpret it, enabling networks of the future to make decisions more e˜ ectively. "The networks sector is moving from an era of not having the data necessary to support future energy services, to one of having such vast amounts that it will be complicated to process into actionable decisions at scale." JOHN GRIFFITHS, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, LUCY ELECTRIC