Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/895363
NETWORK / 22 / NOVEMBER 2017 Q: You presented at the Net- work Flexible Networks and DSR conference at the begin- ning of the month. What mes- sage did you want to convey to delegates? Sotiris Georgiopoulos: I spoke about our flexibility tender and our initiative to engage with customers, providers and ag - gregators. Whilst we continue to oper- ate and invest in the network to maintain a safe, secure, and sustainable power supply to eight million homes and businesses, we need to make use of smart, flexible, and innovative tech - niques to ensure delivery of our outputs, minimise the cost impact on consumers, and manage the increased complexity of this low carbon world. We believe that customer flexi - bility will be central to facilitating a smarter, flexible energy system. Our flexibility programme is look- ing to utilise response from gen- erators, demand side providers, and electricity storage resources connected to our networks to sup- port efficient network planning and operations. We identified 10 locations where we know that over the coming years, we might need ad- ditional capacity in the system to manage the peaks. Instead of the standard, traditional approach of upgrading the assets at those locations, we want to see what the market can offer in terms of flexibility. Q: This would include de - mand side response (DSR)? SG: Yes. It could be provided by existing DSR customers, who are managing their installations to reduce demand, and it could also be offered by batteries, third parties in local communities or generators. We have advertised our requirements in an open and agnostic manner – we don't have a proscribed view of how it should be provided, as long as it can meet our requirements. We set out the time band we need DSR for, and the amount of ca - pacity we need, and then there is a number of ways that could take place. We made our expression of interest available publicly and we are interested to hear from customers who have flexibility in those postcodes. Q: What do those hotspots have in common? SG: They are all forecasted to re - quire peak demand management to keep them within existing network limits. The hotspots are areas where we need to intervene to upgrade the assets. But we want to look at what the market can offer as well. At the end of the day, we have to choose the most economical solution. We will see what the market is offering compared to the cost of upgrad - ing the assets. One of our duties is to build a more efficient network – we will go for what is the lowest cost for consumers. Don't forget that the main objectives of the INTERVIEW Keeping the lights on Network speaks to Sotiris Georgiopoulos, head of smart grid development, UK Power Networks. ZIV and BES deliver successful SAS project in Sierra Leone ZIV has commissioned a protection, control and substation automation system for Sierra Leone´s Ministry of Energy. It has been a satisfactory overseas collaboration with British EPC, BES Group. British Engineering Services (BES Group) specialises in the supply of electrical services and equipment to governments, utilities and industries worldwide. The company has experience in Africa. The project involved the extension of the existing Kington Substation, located in Freetown: including a 161/33Kv Transformer, a 33Kv busbar and three feeders in 33Kv. ZIV supplied a protection panel for the power transformer, with the differential protection as well as backup protections and voltage regulator IEDs, an additional panel for control and metering functions of the power transformer, bay control units, meters and 33kV feeder panels. It was completed with a Sequence of Events (SOE) and a Data Recording System (DRS) consisting of the substation automation units manufactured by ZIV. The engineering services included the configuration of the system, the integration with the data control centres of the end client, the electrical engineering of the protection and control part, as well as the factory acceptance tests and site testing. I N D U S T RY I N S I G H T