It’s been an exciting week here at SP Electricity North West (SP ENW) as we hosted senior representatives from HEDNO (Greece’s distribution network operator) and HEP ODS (Croatia’s distribution network operator) to our head office in Manchester, as part of a UK visit organised by the British Embassies in Athens and Zagreb.
Their three-day programme also included a visit to UK Power Networks and an industry roundtable hosted by the Energy Industries Council – all aimed at deepening collaboration and showcasing the UK’s strengths in electricity networks.
Being able to showcase our work and ambitions in distribution system operation (DSO) to international delegates is hugely rewarding and it also allows us to contribute to the UK’s wider growth agenda by demonstrating the strengths of the UK’s electricity networks sector – a key sub-sector with the UK’s National Industrial Strategy.
We also see it as a responsibility to share the innovations shaping the future of the sector and build greater understanding around the global shift towards low carbon technologies and the role electricity networks play in the transition.
We were able to talk about:
Strategic planning to support growth and net zero: how we work with our local authorities and regional partners to plan and release network capacity to support decarbonisation.
Smart Street: one of our flagship innovation projects that uses distinct voltage management to reduce energy consumption and currently deployed in low-income areas to ensure households most in need benefit first through lower bills and improved energy efficiency.
Active Network Management: our world leading ANM system which is a real time software-based control platform that depending on the situation can adjust power flows, enables faster, more cost-effective connections while helping to avoid additional reinforcement and supports a more resilient, low carbon energy system.
Fault Location, Isolation and Supply Restoration (FLISR) and Large Area Restoration (LAR): our automated restoration tools can rapidly identify the location of a fault, isolate the affected section of the network and restore supply to as many customers as possible within seconds.
Flexibility Services: We introduced our flexibility services, which allow customers to adjust how they consume, generate or store electricity to support network needs during peak times or to restore an outage or fault. Participants receive a payment in return, creating a fair and efficient way of helping balance local network requirements.
Social DSO: which is who we are and underpins our whole programme by ensuring that the transition to a smart, low carbon system works for everyone.
So, it was quite a day and we’ve already received some great feedback and generated many ideas about how similar approaches could be applied in Greece and Croatia on the distribution network.
We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the British Embassies in Greece and Croatia alongside the Department for Business and Trade as we explore next steps and build on the opportunities created through the visit.
