The Anonymous Widower

£400k For National Grid Innovation Projects As Part Of Ofgem Fund To Help Shape Britain’s Net Zero Transition

The title of this post, is the same as that, of this press release from National Grid.

These three bullet points, act as sub-headings.

• Three transmission and distribution network innovation projects receive green light 
• Funding kickstarts projects for the discovery phase of Ofgem innovation scheme
• 14 National Grid projects worth £4m have won innovation funding since scheme began

These are the three projects.

HIRE – Hybrid-Network Improvement & Reliability Enhancement

This is National Grid’s description of the £135,000 project.

Researching new state-of-the-art condition monitoring to improve the commissioning and operation of offshore cables. This new, robust system will mitigate the risk of failure, overcome the limitations of existing techniques (e.g. cable length) and aid network operators in decision making for a more flexible grid. PROJECT PARTNERS: University of Manchester, DNV, Monitra, SSEN Transmission.

With all the offshore cables, that have been laid around the UK, Europe and the world in recent years, I am surprised that such a system has not been developed before.

But I suspect, that the project partners know that if they can develop a superior cable monitoring system, then it could be a nice little earner in addition to its job with UK offshore cables.

According to their web site, Monitra seem to be the monitoring experts.

This is the mission statement on their home page.

Our aim is to maximise the uptime of every high voltage asset worldwide.

I like this company’s attitude and it should make the world a better place.

I certainly think that the £135,000 will be well spent.

REACH – Rural Energy And Community Heat

This is National Grid’s description of the £120,000 project.

Working with rural community energy groups to develop a modular rural energy centre that will help communities make cost effective decarbonisation plans. The solution will offer shared low carbon heating, rapid EV charging, and renewable generation in areas not served by commercial markets, and where there is limited electricity network capacity.

Rolls-Royce mtu seem to have a system, that might go some way to satisfy National Grid’s ambitions, that I wrote about in Would You Buy A Battery Energy Storage System From Rolls-Royce?.

Road to Power

This is National Grid’s description of the £140,000 project.

Developing specific tools to forecast future energy consumption and infrastructural impact of works, to support the street and road works sector as it decarbonises 7.8TWh of energy demand across 700,000 major works in the sector’s pivotal transition to net zero by 2030.

This sounds like an excellent idea. Especially, if it makes street and road works quieter and less polluting.

Conclusion

I like these three projects and have already added them to my list of Google Alerts.

March 18, 2024 - Posted by AnonW | Energy | Decarbonisation, HVDC Cable, Innovation, Manchester University, Monitra, National Grid, Ofgem, Rolls-Royce mtu