Marches Network Monitoring

Client need

EA Technology is working with National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED), a Distribution Network Operator (DNO) serving the midlands and south west of England and the south of Wales, to install monitoring equipment into 200 NGED Low Voltage (LV) substations within the Shropshire and Herefordshire areas. This project funded by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) aims to eliminate barriers for growth and identify opportunities for development in the Marches Region.

The Marches LEP want to use this opportunity to understand local grid constraints that can increase the cost and/or the timescales for communities or businesses to connect their low carbon projects. The goal of this project is to provide new avenues for connections of distributed generation and allow local communities to take more control of how they use and generate energy.

Our approach

To ensure the project aligned with the Marches LEP’s mission of developing the region, EA Technology’s first step was to understand the existing projects that could benefit from increased knowledge of their connections to the grid. Alongside input from NGED planners, EA Technology will work with local communities and businesses in the region to find projects and initiatives that would benefit from increased network monitoring. These will provide of case studies showing best practice for LV monitoring deployment as a method of informing on possible connection constraints and network usage.

To ensure analysis can be open to all project stakeholders EA Technology will provide access to the Detect monitoring platform to provide real time information from the installed VisNet Hubs. As soon as the hubs are installed, NGED and the projects involved will be able to see their local network connections and where capacity exists on the network.

Benefits

NGED has previously installed VisNet monitoring technology on their LV Network so continuing the partnership with EA Technology allows them to expand their existing monitoring processes. EA Technology is providing NGED and the project stakeholders with a direct portal to access the information from all monitoring devices on their system. The Marches LEP will gain new insights into areas they can push for further development on that will take advantage of spare network capacity.

Why this is relevant to your project

This project is an example of the continued work EA Technology is delivering with Local Authorities and similar non-industry stakeholders to provide expert advice on navigating the changing energy industry. EA Technology supports local stakeholders with developing Local Energy Plans, understanding network capacity and constraints and providing examples of new technologies they can take utilise to future proof their local areas.

Testimonials

 Spokesperson for Marches Local Enterprise Partnership

"The need to manage our energy efficiently has never been more important. That is why the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership is particularly pleased to support this innovative project, which will help unlock some of the energy constraints faced across the region which are a barrier to growth. It is essential that we find better ways of managing the supply of electricity in the country and maximising the input of renewable energy at the same time. This project will do just that."

Sven Hoffman, National Grid

"LV monitoring optimises the use of the existing electricity network and ensures network upgrades are targeted more precisely to where they are needed, making the best use of the network.  This project will speed up the connection of low carbon technology - keeping costs, and customers’ bills, to a minimum."