Be Innovative
The whole electricity system is becoming more integrated and other sectors are becoming ever more dependent on energy (e.g. transport) as they drive towards net-zero emissions.
Innovation in NGET covers everything from everyday continuous improvement through to step change technological breakthroughs and brings added value to our long-term ambition.
What this stakeholder priority is about
The need to transition to clean energy, and drive down current and future consumer costs are driving rapid changes in our energy system.
Everything we do is for our customers, stakeholders and ultimately the end consumer. They are telling us they want us to be innovative, and deliver an affordable network that is safe, reliable and resilient, and play a role in decarbonising the UK economy. We can make a real, meaningful difference, leading the way to a safe and sustainable future.
Our Innovation Strategy has been developed with our stakeholders, resulting in the following focus areas:
- Delivering Cleaner Energy
- Delivering Cheaper Energy
What you can find in this chapter
- What this stakeholder priority is about
- Track record and implications for T2
- What our stakeholders are telling us
- Our proposals for the T2 period
- The justification for our proposals
- Our proposed costs for the T2 period
- How we will manage risk and uncertainty
What you have told us so far
We've asked our stakeholders what is important to you. You've told us that we should innovate more on decarbonisation, as well as providing a reliable energy system and lower energy bills. We've changed our plans to increase our focus on decarbonisation.
You want us to invest in innovative ways of delivering this which creates benefits both now and in the future. You've told us that we are not accessible enough, we need to be more open and transparent.
You want us to share our innovation challenges earlier, and encourage more Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be involved.
We'll do this through BAU Innovation, Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) and Strategic Funding Innovation Pot (SFIP).
End to end description of stakeholder engagement and how it has influenced our plan
Innovation T1 Performance
Detail of our innovation spend and outputs delivered in T1 compared to our allowances
ENA Benefits Reporting Framework - Delivery Plan
The joint piece of work carried out by energy networks to have an innovation benefits report framework which is common across all networks.
Board charter for how we will develop the business to be more innovative
BAU Innovation
Key areas | Description | Commitments |
|---|---|---|
| Embedding a culture of innovation | Improving our ‘innovation culture’ throughout the organisation | Board level commitment to embed innovation into our BAU culture Use IDEO cultural survey to improve purpose, experimentation, collaboration, empowerment, looking out and refinement Adopting National Grid Partners ‘centre of excellence’ which establishes a shared understanding of the value innovation can bring, ensures consistent execution, tracking & enhances collaboration |
| Rolling out proven T2 innovation | Creating new innovation projects which deliver benefits within the period and rolling out the benefits | Deliver technical innovation in OHLs, SGTs, Protection & Control, Cyber Security, Cables, Power Electronics & Network Management |
| Improving collaboration & attracting 3rd parties | Being open and accessible, and attracting a wider set of external stakeholders and 3rd parties, including SMEs and other industries | Hold annual conferences with other electricity networks to disseminate learning from innovation activities Share specific learning through presentation at other network conferences and events Create new data sets from our wider stakeholder set Stakeholders will experience a consistent approach Develop a portal for our innovation website where 3rd parties can submit idea Hold joint ‘whole system’ gas and electricity calls for proposals and run yearly challenges on NIA propositions |
| Monitoring progress and outcomes | Developing a joint monitoring framework across the industry for a common method of measuring the progress and benefits of innovation activities | Work with other network companies and the ENA to deliver a joint monitoring framework, which is publicly available (see annex on Benefits Framework) |
| Being more transparent | Sharing our work, benefits and progress externally | Be consistent in our approach Striking the balance between open source data and the security of our network |
Network Innovation Allowance (NIA)
Commitments | T2 Baseline (£m) | Consumer benefits |
|---|---|---|
Investigate alternatives to SF6 which can be retro-fitted, avoiding the need for more costly asset replacement Identify methods for reducing or eliminating cement requirements Implement solutions with novel materials with a lower carbon footprint and which also help with the reduction of visual and environmental impacts Create enhanced methods of measuring SF6 leakage | 8 |
|
We will collaborate with other network companies and expand the facility in the T2 period, allowing the facility to be truly whole system and not just for electricity Include a facility to trial gas (hydrogen and liquefied natural gas) integration, electric transport technologies, and zero-carbon generation technologies Open up the facility to SMEs We will be transparent about the activities at Deeside, to allow all parties to share and collaborate regardless of fuel or network | 30 |
|
Lead the way to a low carbon future by implementing the government’s Clean Growth Strategy Facilitate electricity network’s role in the transition to electric vehicles Actively explore opportunities to support and work with other industries (transport, steel, cement) to identify and implement decarbonisation activities Explore the appetite of other industries to move toward a hydrogen economy and the implications for transmission networks Support industry in the development of technology and systems to help them participate in the future energy market | 13 |
|
Investigate tools and techniques to allow the digitisation of maintenance, monitoring, and testing of equipment with automated archiving and analysis of information Research and investigate algorithms for the mixture of data with various levels of accuracies and time-frames Investigate risk in real-time to maximise asset performance and value Investigate the potential of artificial intelligence, robotics and research sensors Explore how artificial intelligence can be applied to our asset, financial and other data sets Share data across the whole energy system (heat, transport, energy) | 22.5 |
|
Produce offline tools to replicate our live network, allowing us to respond to customers more quickly Create new assets and installation methods that can be quickly deployed and moved around the UK to support the fast connection of customers | 7.1 |
|
Collaborate with parties closer to consumers (suppliers, DNOs, supply chain) Explore our role in this area with stakeholders (leadership or supporting) Collaborate with SMEs to develop further understanding in this area of how we can support vulnerable consumers | 2.2 |
|
| Lead research into new safety technology for the whole energy industry | 1.2 |
|
Strategic Funding Innovation Pot (SFIP)
The SFIP replaces the the Network Innovation Competition (NIC) which was successfully utilised to progress the initial stages of our Deeside Centre for innovation. There have been no funding proposals set out yet by Ofgem, we therefore propose that this pot is focussed on the following areas:
- Enabling the transition to net zero by 2050. Additional stimulus funds in this area will allow us to meet our commitments set out in our business plan on net zero.
- Finding solutions to nationally significant challenges such as the future of transport, heat and network resilience.