Smart Street newsletter January 2016

Go live

The Smart Street trials are now live. Following a challenging installation programme the Smart Street technologies have been commissioned and the project trials are under way.

We have installed a range of new voltage management technology in our main control room, at six primary substations and 40 associated distribution substations. The new equipment was installed and the system configured between late 2014 and late-2015, before the live trials began in January 2016.

The trial sites serve around 67,000 customers in Manchester, Wigan, Wigton and Egremont. These sites were chosen as they are representative of our geographic area and our different customers.

The trials will take place over a two-year period using a two-week-on/two-week-off test regime. This will enable us to compare one year’s worth of Smart Street data with normal network operation, so we can calculate the overall benefits of Smart Street and understand any impact on our customers.

You can find out more about our trial design and test regimes on our website. 

Smart Street technology

Smart Street is the first demonstration in Great Britain of a fully centralised low voltage network management and automation system.

Its new voltage control techniques configure and optimise voltage on our high voltage (HV) and low voltage (LV) networks in real time using bespoke Spectrum 5 software developed by Siemens. One of the new techniques deployed is conservation voltage reduction (CVR). By using LV capacitors alongside transformers with an on-load tap changer, we intend to reduce the supply voltage to our customers to an optimum level for energy efficient operation of appliances, reducing our customers’ energy usage and releasing capacity on the network.

During the technology build we installed 498 WEEZAPs and 126 LYNX devices (a new controllable switching device developed in collaboration with project partner Kelvatek). We have also installed 49 end-point monitors, 84 low voltage capacitors, six high voltage capacitors and five on-load tap changing transformers. All of this equipment has been integrated into our network management system and is controlled by Siemens Spectrum 5 from our control centre.

Customer engagement

Before the technology installation began, the company launched a campaign to inform customers in the trial areas about the project. A customer focus group was held to help decide the best way to communicate information to the 67,000 customers served by the trial circuits. We then issued an information leaflet to customers and subsequently contacted around 1500 customers who live close to any new equipment installed as part of the project.

We also committed to contact vulnerable customers on our priority services register, by telephone and by our normal written procedures, if their home would be affected by unavoidable planned outages to install equipment. This proactive approach was designed to manage the specific needs of individual customers. However, because of the careful design of the installation programme, we were able to install all technologies without any need to interrupt customers’ supplies. 

The next part of the campaign will be to hold a series of focus groups to collect qualitative information from customers to understand whether they observe any changes in their electricity supply as a result of the trials.

Learning and dissemination

In the last six months we have attended a number of dissemination events to share our learning from the Smart Street project with our stakeholders.

You can see the presentation materials from the following events on the events page of our website:

• Infuse event, 7 October 2015, Lisburn, Northern Ireland
• Smart Street learning event, 13 October 2015, The Crystal, London
• LCNI conference, 24 – 26 November 2015, Liverpool.

What's next?

Over the next few months we will be focusing on the following key activities:

• Carrying out the Smart Street trials in conjunction with our research deliverables
• Holding our next engaged customer panel with customers on the trial circuits
• Our next project newsletter in July 2016
• Our second project learning event in February 2017.

Find out more

• Find out more about Smart Street on our project website.
• Watch our project videos and recordings of our webinars.
• If you have a general enquiry about Smart Street: email us phone us on 0800 195 4141.
• If you are interested in attending any of our knowledge sharing events please contact us.   
• You can also text your question to 87070 - start your message with SMART. All text messages will be charged at your standard network rate