Northern Powergrid’s smart grid project unlocks £26bn benefits

Northern Powergrid estimates that the learnings from its Customer-Led Network Revolution (CLNR) project could lead to up to £26 billion worth of benefits by 2050.

The network says the net benefits to the UK will be between £5 billion and £26 billion from 2020 to 2050, as all the domestic interventions trialled were successfully demonstrated and could form part of the future smart grid.

But Northern Powergrid has also warned the domestic interventions trialled will only be cost effective in the next decade if they deliver benefits to energy suppliers as well as avoiding network reinforcement.

The CLNR project, part of the Low Carbon Networks Fund (LCNF), trialled a range of customer and network flexibility solutions to understand how to deliver increased network capacity at the least possible cost to consumers.

As a result of the £28.6 million 4-year project’s findings Northern Powergrid has created a “route map” to guide the development of smart grid technology and systems to 2050 for other networks.

Northern Powergrid’s own customers will have the opportunity to benefit from £400 million-worth of savings beyond 2023 as a result of its smart grid plans.

The network is investing £83 million now in foundation enabling technology to unlock these future benefits and ensure the grid can handle higher than expected growth levels for low carbon technologies.

The findings from the project will be pooled with other network’s LCNF projects in order for tariff designs to be developed which incentivises desired peak load shift for the benefit of suppliers.

Ofgem senior partner for distribution Maxine Frerk said: “Energy networks are facing significant challenges in moving to a low carbon future and ensuring costs are kept low for consumers.”

“Ofgem’s LCNF has helped network companies respond to these challenges.

“We now expect companies to learn from the experience provided by the projects under the scheme, share it across the industry and embed innovation learning into their culture and practises.”