UK Power Networks

A study to find out how to harness more of the renewable energy generated by solar cells on people’s homes has been honoured at the British Renewable Energy Association Awards.

UK Power Networks has revealed the next steps in its plans to transform its network into a smart, flexible grid. A new report: ‘What our stakeholders said’, summarises how the responses to the network’s 2017 Future Smart consultation, will inform its 2018/2019 Distribution System Operator (DSO) plans to support ‘a smart grid for all’ and deliver better outcomes for customers.

Distribution network operator, UK Power Networks, has announced a trial that will save connections customers millions of pounds, and free up about 95MW of additional capacity for renewable energy to feed into local electricity networks. Load Share is an innovation project that is testing an alternative to costly and time-consuming reinforcement to help the network serve the continued expansion of low carbon energy in east Essex.

UK Power Networks is calling on energy resources to offer their services to support the distribution network during periods of high electricity demand. Until now, such contracts were used to support the national power system, and rarely on the local network.

Playing a major role in the transition towards a low-carbon economy, a trial of the largest grid-scale battery in Britain has proven it can potentially transform the energy grid. The ‘big battery’, designed and run by UK Power Networks and based in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, stores energy when demand is low and releases it at peak times.