Welcome to ENIC 2020

Live ministerial address and Q&A

Keynote

What are we looking for in future NIC and NIA projects?

Keynote

The future direction of the UK’s energy system and the role of innovation

• What has been achieved over past 5 years on energy innovation
• What might be the priorities for the next 5 years
• How we can further drive collaboration and partnerships

Panel

Enabling net zero: decarbonising the energy system

• Open Networks and Gas Goes Green Project updates
• Interconnectivity, sector coupling and building the smart energy systems of the future
• Energy system transformation: what does this mean?
• The energy system transition: who pays?
• The role of the networks in transitioning to a net zero energy system

End of session

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Lunch

Probabilistic assessments in forecasting for network planning: focus on EV charging uncertainties

This presentation is on probabilistic assessments in forecasting used for network planning with a particular focus on EV charging uncertainties. Just a few years before we expect to see a significant number of EVs on the road, the main headaches for network planners are the uncertainties involved in EV charging, such as whether they will be charged at home, work or en route and at what capacities. These uncertainties can be better captured using probabilistic assessments as we do in our Reflect NIA project, providing useful cost and risk insights to network planners.

Our EV uptake journey: CHARGE, EV-UP and PACE

The uptake of electric vehicles is something we know must happen now. We see the role of the DNO in enabling it while also preparing ourselves for the network impact and focusing on maintaining our network reliability. In this presentation, we will present an overview of our work in supporting the delivery of EV charging infrastructure, here and now, while also looking ahead to how we can best anticipate and enable regional uptake across our license areas in the future. This will cover key work across three critical projects in our portfolio:

DC-Share and Take Charge: innovating for a cost effective EV charging infrastructure

DC Share is a £5.6 Million NIC project that is being delivered by Western Power Distribution, Ricardo, Turbo Power Systems, Electricity North West and Vectos. It will design and trial an innovative meshed DC network to balance the local distribution network and combine latent transformer capacity and utilise it for rapid car charging. We will be sharing an overview of the project as well as our progress to date. Our innovative 'Take Charge' NIA project aims to make rapid charging at service stations quicker and easier for both service station operators and customers while saving tens of millions of pounds. It involves designing, testing and trialling a 'one size fits all’ compact solution ensuring that service station customers can simultaneously charge their vehicles at peak times. Find out about the initial findings from the project including the work on site selection, system capacity and design.

Electric Vehicles: preparing networks for EV ready roads

Projecting highly localised EV uptake scenarios and addressing regional challenges through innovation, looking at the E Tourism and Local Electric Vehicle Energy Loop (LEVEL) projects.

End of session

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Visit the Networking Lounge for group chats on:

a. Emobility: what do the networks need to do to enable the electrification of transport?

b. The hydrogen transition: how are we building confidence in the safety case?

c. Funding operational efficiency innovations

d. Innovation in ED2

TRANSITION: tailoring flexibility to the needs of the market

DNO led flexibility market development can be driven by a combination of network needs, technology growth/availability and socio-political pressures. This is resulting in geographical diversity in the maturity of markets across both local and national levels. This is a natural process in market progression and is the reason products and prices of a single good/service may vary within a given area (local, national, international).

FUSION

SP Energy’s project FUSION is actively working to unlock flexibility through aggregator participation in the flexibility market. By facilitating this structured and competitive market, based on the Universal Smart Energy Framework (USEF), network flexibility will be accessible to a much wider range of participants. The creation of a flexibility market will go beyond existing bilateral trading of flexibility, providing a whole systems approach to realising the value of flexibility. Project lead, Michael Green, will discuss the progression of the project and highlight some key learning from the journey so far.

Power Potential project for reactive power service provision from DERs

Power Potential is a TSO/DSO innovation project between National Grid ESO and UK Power Networks, enabling distributed energy resources (DERs) connected to the distribution grid to provide reactive power transmission services to the ESO. It focuses on the dynamic voltage support that can be obtained from the DERs and the associated provision of a ‘reactive power service’ to help manage transmission voltage constraints. The core of the project is a new IT control platform which facilitates the communication and control of DERs connected to networks, supporting the technical and market solution. We will be sharing the design of the project trials to validate both the technical and commercial framework.

Closer to real time procurement- initial findings of Auction Trial Phase 2

The weekly auction trial is a two-year innovation project which is designed to test the hypothesis that closer to real-time procurement will lower the barrier for non-traditional participants, increase market liquidity, and reduce overall balancing costs via weekly pay-as-clear auctions. This presentation will outline the project brief, comparisons between innovative weekly frequency response market and traditional monthly market, ESO’s learning points so far and the plan for next steps.

Distributed ReStart: demonstration phase, shedding light on our findings and setting the scene for delivery

We have now passed our halfway point and are entering the ‘demonstration phase’ on the Distributed ReStart project. Learn about our progress and findings on:

• Designing the technical, organisational, systems and telecommunications solutions to be tested in live trials
• Reviewing the range of codes, policies, and standards
• Learning about the development and implementation of the automated Distributed Restart Zone Controller

Speed panel

Accelerating flexibility markets: next steps

• What can we learn from these innovation projects that can be taken into future programmes?
• New initiatives that require planning in the near to mid-term
• Unanswered questions around how flexibility markets will be brough to maturity UK

End of session

Welcome to ENIC 2020

Live ministerial address and Q&A

Keynote

What are we looking for in future NIC and NIA projects?

Keynote

The future direction of the UK’s energy system and the role of innovation

• What has been achieved over past 5 years on energy innovation
• What might be the priorities for the next 5 years
• How we can further drive collaboration and partnerships

Panel

Enabling net zero: decarbonising the energy system

• Open Networks and Gas Goes Green Project updates
• Interconnectivity, sector coupling and building the smart energy systems of the future
• Energy system transformation: what does this mean?
• The energy system transition: who pays?
• The role of the networks in transitioning to a net zero energy system

End of session

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for:

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Lunch

Live polling session

Delivering tomorrow’s electricity network: the Open Networks Project

Quickfire updates on the five themes of work coming out of the ENA’s Open Networks Project, and a chance to feed back on its 2021 direction in our live polling panel.

• Data and outputs: update from Open Networks and the Data Working Group
• Whole energy system transformation
• Flexibility and commercial evolution
• Delivering Distribution System Operation (DSO)
• Improving distribution connections for customers

Panel

What do you need from the future electricity grid?

• DSO/ESO coordination: how will it work?
• Opportunities for standardisation and opening up data to improve the customer experience
• Working holistically across all energy vectors: how will this work?
• Barriers to participation in flexibility markets
• Role of networks in delivering net zero

End of session

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for:

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Visit the Networking Lounge for group chats on:

a. Emobility: what do the networks need to do to enable the electrification of transport?

b. The hydrogen transition: how are we building confidence in the safety case?

c. Funding operational efficiency innovations

d. Innovation in ED2

Tech showcase

New solutions for future energy systems

Global innovators have just 5 minutes each to share their latest solutions, how they work and the benefits they can bring to energy networks, in this lively fast-paced session.

End of session

Welcome back to ENIC 2020

Shaping an inclusive energy transition

Outside the box speaker

Our view of the future of energy and how innovation will make it happen

Panel

Which international net zero projects can we learn from?

• Germany’s lessons learnt from the SINTEG innovation projects and plans for its energy transition
• European smart grid initiatives: progress, challenges and future direction
• The USA’s net zero projects and focus for 2030 and 2050
• What new projects we do need to fully decarbonise energy systems by 2050?

End of session

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for:

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Lunch

Distributed intelligence on the low voltage electricity network: system and community benefits

OpenLV is a three-and-a-half-year project with a £5.5 million budget, funded through the Network Innovation Competition. The project, managed by EA Technology on behalf of Western Power Distribution, has investigated the benefit of deploying a distributed intelligence platform on the low voltage distribution network, testing the LV-CAP™ technologies ability to:

• Monitor the low voltage loads on cables and transformers in substations
• Provide network operators with accurate information about the state of the network
• Perform calculations locally
• Send out alerts when pre-set thresholds are met
• Reconfigure or directly influence the local low voltage network

Further, OpenLV has investigated the appetite among community organisations, businesses and academics to receive low voltage network data and to use it if it is made available. This presentation will cover the network benefits of distributed intelligence and summarise the wider societal appetite and positive outcomes of making local data available to all.

Boston Spa Energy Efficiency Trial: using smart meters to reduce customers’ energy consumption

Conservation voltage reduction is the concept of reducing customers’ supply voltage to lower their energy consumption. Generally, customers’ supply voltage on low voltage distribution networks tends to be high and previous innovation projects have proven that by reducing this voltage household energy consumption can be reduced. The Boston Spa Energy Efficiency Trial (BEET) will develop and trial a control system to take smart meter voltage measurements and use these to determine an optimum target voltage set point to be applied at the 11kV busbars at three primary substations in the trial area. The aim is to provide customers with a lower supply voltage than they currently receive. The innovation is that smart meter voltage measurements will be used as part of the control system and no new primary hardware such as voltage regulators or on-load tap changers at secondary substations are required.

Panel

Protecting vulnerable customers as we decarbonise electricity networks

• How to go about protecting vulnerable consumers and customers
• Balancing the cost against the liability of providing a reliable system
• How do we make the future energy system fair?
• What are the opportunities to better engage with our customers in the future?
• What are the opportunities to better engage with our customers in the future?

Fast followers quickfire round

Technologies tested by the networks through the NIC or NIA projects, which can be readily implemented by other network operators.

• Smart Street IRM: the road to BAU
  Andy Howard, Innovation Programme Manager, Electricity North West
• Low Voltage: Underground Fault Location Technologies (LV-UFLT)
  Kevin Dennis, Innovation Project Manager, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks
• Universal bushing project: successful reduction of spares holding
  Gordon Wilson, Senior Innovation Engineer, National Grid Electricity Transmission
• iDentify
  Michael Alexander, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, SP Energy Networks
• Autodesign: LV connections self-service tool
  Clare Roberts, Design Engineer, Northern Powergrid
• Load Blinding Relays
  Ben Gabb, Technical Sourcing and Standards Engineer, UK Power Networks, UK Power Networks

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for:

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Visit the Networking Lounge to join group chats on:

a. Power electronics: how they are being applied

b. Flexibility and stability for islands and other remote communities

Silent Power: hybrid EV generator

Silent Power is a mobile electrical energy storage system that is used to restore domestic customer supplies in the event of a network fault or maintain customer supplies during a planned power cut. The system operates in silence and produces no particulate contamination. It can also be used to create a mobile microgrid, absorbing local generation and supporting local demand. Northern Powergrid is currently trialling three of these systems in its operating area.

Sentinel: the learning so far

The Sentinel presentation will cover a brief description of the project aims, the technologies employed/trialled and the progress to date. It will explain the end to end process for different fault types and highlight the challenges and solutions we have encountered and what the next steps are for the project.

Optimised Infra-Red Image technology Systems (OsIRIS)

This project quantified the uncertainty in infrared measurements in substation environments using an ISO compliant methodology. This will help in identifying a threshold at which temperature triggers should be set to avoid false readings and alarms when using infrared imaging as part of asset management processes.

Fault location excellence: keeping the lights on as we move towards next zero

UK Power Networks’ experienced engineers will take you through the company’s projects using cutting-edge technology to deliver the most reliable power supplies ever across London, the South and East of England. The team will share insights from projects involving new uses for AI, new smart technologies and innovative operational equipment aimed at taking the DNO’s performance to the next level. You’ll learn more about a range of exciting projects, all of which are testing innovative technologies to either predict power cuts before they happen, or give engineers more information about faults when they happen – so they can keep the lights on more reliably than ever.

LV Engine: the journey of developing the detailed design of a smart transformer

LV Engine is deploying a novel smart transformer onto UK distribution networks. This presentation will share the journey of the detailed design of the smart transformer. This will cover topics such as protection, cooling and size considerations.

End of session

Welcome back to ENIC 2020

European keynote

The future energy system: a European vision for 2050

Outside the box speaker

Our view of the future of energy and how innovation will make it happen

Panel

Which international net zero projects can we learn from?

• Germany’s lessons learnt from the SINTEG innovation projects and plans for its energy transition
• European smart grid initiatives: progress, challenges and future direction
• The USA’s net zero projects and focus for 2030 and 2050
• What new projects we do need to fully decarbonise energy systems by 2050?

End of session

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for:

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Lunch

Gas Goes Green: purpose and progress

The Hydrogen Transformation Plan

The Hydrogen Plan report: overview and key recommendations.

Panel

How do networks deliver the hydrogen transition?

What else do we need to do on the issues raised in the Hydrogen Transformation Plan?

Gas Goes Green in 2021

• ENA programme for 2021: have your say on the plans for our programme of work
• How to get involved: opportunities for service and technology providers

Visit our Exhibition and Innovation Halls for:

• New technologies on display
• Q&A with projects leaders on their companies’ stands
• Extra NIC and NIA project presentation videos available for download

Visit the Networking Lounge to join group chats on:

a. Power electronics: how they are being applied

b. Flexibility and stability for islands and other remote communities

Heat: electrification and zero carbon

Learn more about UK Power Networks’ industry-first decarbonisation of Heat Strategy and a portfolio of new projects aimed facilitating this integral part of the Net Zero carbon emissions transition. Engineers at the Distribution Network Operator will take you through their targeted, local approach to a forecasting and monitoring heat-readiness through collaboration with local authorities, community groups and other key stakeholders. The team will also discuss early insights from the company’s work to actively facilitate the transition to low carbon heating by create zones analysing the best pathways in specific areas.

4D Heat: can flexible domestic electric heating help reduce wind curtailment?

By analysing an off-gas grid area in Skye and extrapolating to off-gas grid Scotland, 4D Heat explores the ability of heat flexibility to absorb wind power that would otherwise have been curtailed due to England-Scotland transmission constraints. 4D Heat takes a whole system view and all optimisation and analyses were subject to the constraint of not increasing costs to the Electricity System Operator, Distribution Grid Operator or end consumer. The project identified that up to 540GWh (9%) of otherwise curtailed wind could be used by domestic heating across off-gas grid Scotland in 2030, saving £24m per year in wind constraint payments and delivering a further £2m per year in environmental and social benefits.

Panel

The decarbonisation of heat: cross-vector solutions

• The hydrogen transition: progress update
• Views on the state of heat in 2050: What percentages do we expect to be covered by hydrogen, biomethane, electrification and heat networks?
• Ensuring a coordinated approach to the decarbonisation of heat across the UK
• Policy and regulatory frameworks needed to support 2050 goals

Zero 2050

We will talk you through the South Wales Zero 2050 project and the approach taken to developing plausible decarbonisation pathways for the whole energy system in South Wales. You will hear about the emerging findings from the analysis, highlighting uncertainties that we need to consider as we move to a zero carbon future. We will also explore how we can learn from South Wales for elsewhere in Great Britain.

Multi Energy Vector Modelling: investigating the impact of decarbonisation

In response to the pressing environmental concerns, a wide range of net zero carbon emissions pathways are being proposed and periodically updated. Catering for these uncertain pathways in a cost-effective manner is a grand challenge, which will require a whole system perspective to plan for investments in critical infrastructures to support coupling between multiple energy vectors and sectors. This project aims to develop a multi-energy methodology and tool capable to quantify the energy infrastructure impacts and requirements of various future multi-energy decarbonisation pathways. A high level overview of the methodology will be presented, including key demand models for electricity, heating, gas, biogas, hydrogen and transport. The results, based on the context of Greater Manchester, will shed light on how different energy futures can have diverse effects on peak energy use and the associated requirements for network capacity and other investments in infrastructures across the area.

End of session