Smart Street newsletter July 2015

Background

It’s estimated that the cost of upgrading the UK electricity network by building more infrastructure to meet future demand could be as much as £1.8 billion by 2025 in the North West alone and £15 billion across Great Britain. That's the equivalent of almost £600 for every household. To minimise potential costs, disruption and carbon emissions, we need to develop smarter and more efficient ways of managing our electricity networks.

The £11.5 million Smart Street project will trial innovative voltage control techniques to optimise network voltage while maintaining voltages within statutory limits. It aims to make networks and customers’ appliances perform more efficiently and make it easier to adopt low carbon technologies (solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps) onto the electricity network.

The project was awarded £8.5 million of funding in November 2013 following a successful bid to Ofgem's Low Carbon Networks Fund.

Smart Street technology

Smart Street’s new voltage control techniques will configure and optimise voltage on our high voltage (HV) and low voltage (LV) networks in real time using bespoke Spectrum software developed by Siemens. These techniques, known as conservation voltage reduction, will minimise the impact of low carbon technologies, while maintaining voltage within statutory limits.

The project challenges current operational practices and demonstrates how to optimise HV and LV electricity networks, using the most advanced technology developed for LV network management. This will demonstrate that a network operator can quickly release capacity and voltage headroom, while operating a cost, carbon and energy efficient distribution network.

Capacitors and new controllable switching devices, called the WEEZAP and LYNX, developed in collaboration with Kelvatek, have been integrated into the network management system. This is the first demonstration in Great Britain of a fully centralised low voltage network management and automation system.

The Smart Street trials

Since the project began in January 2014 we have installed new voltage management technology in our main control room and at six primary substations and 40 associated distribution substations in Manchester, Wigan, Wigton and Egremont, which serve around 67,000 customers. These sites were chosen as they are representative of our geographic area and our different customers.

The new equipment will be installed and the system configured between late 2014 and mid-2015, with live trials due to begin in late 2015. The trials will be carried out on a one-week-on and one-week-off basis until the latter part of 2017.

As part of the trials we will be working with our project partners to quantify the impact of the Smart Street project.

Engaging with our customers and stakeholders

Understanding whether customers are affected by the trials is crucial to the viability of Smart Street. An ‘engaged customer panel’, made up of a representative sample of customers, was convened last year to help decide the best way to communicate information about the project.

Following feedback from the panel, we distributed an information leaflet to customers served by the trial circuits and proactively contacted around 1500 customers who live nearby new equipment installed as part of the project. We have also launched a project website which went live in June 2014 and held webinars in July 2014 and April 2015.

Once the trials are under way we will hold a series of focus groups with our customers to understand whether they observe any changes in their electricity supply as a result of the trials.

Our partners

Throughout the Smart Street project we will work with a number of partners and key suppliers who are leading experts in their fields, either in research, technology or customer engagement. The partners and key suppliers working on the project are:

• Kelvatek will supply WEEZAP and LYNX devices and provide support in executing the trials
• Siemens is responsible for the supply, installation and configuration of the Smart Street optimisation hardware and software
• Impact Research will provide customer engagement and survey activities
• The University of Manchester will examine the voltage optimisation and loss reduction techniques used in Smart Street
• Queen’s University Belfast will produce the design and operation policies required to convert UK networks into optimal meshed configurations
• The Tyndall Centre will research the cost benefits and carbon impact related to the Smart Street solution

TNEI will provide research support and consultation throughout the trials.

What's next?

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

• Technology installation - continue with installation of transformers and capacitors
• Start of trials in the autumn - trials will run for two years in conjunction with research deliverables
• Project learning event in October 2015
• Next project newsletter in December 2015.

Find out more

• Find out more about Smart Street on our project website.
• Watch our project videos or 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