Northern Powergrid has showcased its work to connect innovative technologies and listened to key players in the generation sector to better understand what can be done to help them get connected to the region’s power network.
The company, which is responsible for the network that keeps the lights on for 8 million customers across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire, welcomed 22 stakeholders from 18 organisations to a workshop to engage and discuss the growing role of connecting innovative technologies including battery storage.
The workshop, which gained positive feedback from delegates, explored and openly discussed a variety of subjects, including flexible solutions, energy storage and constrained networks. Delegates were also updated on the outcomes of key Ofgem consultations and Northern Powergrid’s smart grid implementation plan.
Design and commercial engineers from the electricity distributor were also on hand to answer any questions and walk through a range of Low Voltage (LV), High Voltage (HV) and Extra High Voltage (EHV) Northern Powergrid connections case studies. One of the case studies shared included a ground-breaking trial in Barnsley where Northern Powergrid, Moixa and Energise Barnsley are working together to demonstrate how clusters of home batteries can increase capacity on the electricity network and enable more homes to install solar panels.
Mark Drye, Director of Asset Management at Northern Powergrid, said: “The workshop was a great opportunity for us to talk with our customers and keep them up-to-date on the how we are driving forward innovative technologies to develop a smarter network for our region. We also spent this time asking delegates what they thought the new emerging technologies might be and the challenges they might face, which initiated some fantastic discussions.
“We wanted people to get as much as possible out of the day so we actively encouraged delegates to ask questions, share their views and give feedback – which they did. This meant the workshop generated some very valuable feedback for us and 100% of respondents said they were “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their experience on the day. It gave us a real insight into the views of a key group of our stakeholders so we can continue to shape our services and innovative technologies connections to best meet the current and future needs of our customers and the region.”
