WPD declares winners of competition to access local grid data

Western Power Distribution (WPD) has declared the winners of a competition offering participants the chance to access local power grid data to test innovative ideas.

The competition is part of an Ofgem-sponsored trial, called Open LV, for which the distribution network operator is installing a new software platform in 80 low-voltage substations across the Midlands, the South West and South Wales.

The platform – named LV-CAP – will enable WPD to cope with heavy loads on its network by using active network management to release additional capacity from existing assets. It has been designed to be integrated with third-party products and services to allow increased customer participation in network management. Data from the platform will be made available to the competition winners.

A total of 24 projects have been selected to take part in the trial – 17 from business and academia and seven from community organisations.

The winners include:

• An app showing energy demand across a village to enable the balancing of local generation and demand.
• A project investigating how smart appliances in homes could provide flexibility to the local power grid.
• An app showing residents in a tower block how they could save money on bills by shifting demand from peak times.
• A project to build a dynamic pricing model based on real-time grid demand combined with an energy trading platform.

WPD innovation project manager Mark Dale, said: “Having greater visibility of local network power flows will give network operators the confidence to accept greater numbers of low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicle charge points and distributed generation.

“Open LV, with the LV-CAP platform, will open up information about the capacity of local networks and create this visibility for WPD as well as for the successful participants.”

Richard Potter, OpenLV project manager from EA Technology, added: “When we opened the competition for businesses and communities to submit ideas for using open, live electricity data, we didn’t know what response to expect, so I’m delighted that we’ve had so many applications, and so many good ideas to progress to the trial stage.

“Ultimately, the technology being trialled by Open LV is expected to be adopted in substations throughout Britain, providing useful data to a wide range of sectors including electric vehicle charging companies, renewable energy developers, property developers, facilities managers, smart city planners, operators of private energy networks, the electricity industry itself and, of course, local communities.”

The Open LV trial was awarded £4.9 million of funding by Ofgem in its 2016 Network Innovation Competition.