National Grid secures funding for four net zero innovation projects as part of Ofgem fund

National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) has been awarded £920,000 for projects to support the decarbonisation of rural communities and the construction industry. Rural Energy and Community Heat (REACH) aims to address the difficulties in supplying adequate electrical capacity to support the take-up of low carbon technologies in isolated areas, and Road to Power seeks to support the growing use of electricity to power road and other construction equipment.

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) has been awarded £840,000 for two projects to further investigate the future viability of offshore energy islands and superconducting technology, developing blueprints for the technologies and capabilities needed to trial them on the GB energy system. 

The projects have been funded through the programme’s Alpha Phase, which allows for the testing of innovation at a scale that can support future commercialisation and integration into the UK energy networks, typically following earlier feasibility work delivered through the Discovery phase. 

These projects are funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK. The funding awards will support National Grid’s efforts to accelerate the transition to a net zero future, while delivering tangible benefits to energy networks, local authorities and consumers. 

Paul Morris, Head of Future Capacity at National Grid Electricity Distribution, said: “National Grid Electricity Distribution is committed to driving innovation and collaboration to accelerate the transition to a sustainable energy future. The funding awards from the Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund recognise the huge potential in both of these projects, and will enable us to further develop and deploy these cutting-edge solutions that contribute to achieving net zero and improving customer experience.”

Sean Coleman, Strategic Innovation Fund Manager at National Grid Electricity Transmission, said: “Innovation of new technologies and solutions is critical to meeting our decarbonisation goals and delivering the UK’s ambition for a net zero energy system.

"Industry collaboration and shared learning is vital, and we look forward to exploring these two projects further so we can overcome challenges and accelerate the UK's journey to a cleaner, fairer and more affordable energy future.” 
 

Find out more in Ofgem’s full SIF funding announcement

Full list of projects and SIF funding
 

National Grid Electricity Distribution

Rural Energy and Community Heat (REACH) 

REACH aims to address the difficulties in supplying adequate electrical capacity to support the take-up of low carbon technologies in isolated areas. The new funding will enable engineers to refine previous design work for shipping container-sized rural energy centres. These will have standardised equipment that can be easily sited within communities to enable the connection of heat pumps, electric vehicle chargers and renewable generation. 

The funding will also support work to help communities understand their decarbonisation options and will include creating the architecture for a community guidance tool to interpret techno-economic data and make cost-effective choices. The tool will assist communities through the process of determining their requirements and will produce indicative carbon reduction metrics, physical install requirements, project costs and other key data.

Road to Power

Road to Power seeks to support the growing use of electricity to power road and other construction equipment. NGED estimates electric-powered big plant machinery, such as excavators and road rollers, will lead to a surge in demand for temporary connections on its network by 2050.

Road to Power aims to support this rise through modelling increased demand and introducing a self-service connection tool that provides estimates for interruptible and flexible temporary connections, in addition to the standard approach.

Find out more about the NGED projects

NGED are also a project partner in the Cooldown project being lead by Electricity North West.
 

National Grid Electricity Transmission

Assessment of Superconducting Technologies for Standards Development

The energy transition will require the electrification of many energy demand sources, along with a corresponding increase in low-carbon electricity generation. High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) technology is not currently being used in high voltage networks across the UK. This project will seek to evaluate the feasibility of HTS technology for overhead line and cable systems. Currently industry standards for superconducting DC cables or OHL do not exist and this project does not negate the need for the current onshore infrastructure projects being developed by NGET. It aims to examine the potential for the technology for future use by UK transmission system operators and their grid planning teams. 

Look NortH2

Delivered in partnership with National Gas, Guidehouse and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners this project aims to take a cross-energy vector approach to assess the viability and potential impact of co-locating assets offshore including on artificial islands. This project doesn't negate the need for the current onshore infrastructure projects being developed by National Grid as there is no fully offshore solution to integrate offshore wind power. It will explore the business models required, will engage with a broad range of stakeholders and will create a set of assumptions which will allow offshore concepts to be evaluated more quickly. 

NGET are also project partners in the Revisiting and Evaluating Environmental Inputs on Line Ratings (REVISE) and System Strength Measurement and Evaluation (SYSMET) projects which are being led by SSEN Transmission