Operational performance

Innovation is vital for the future of our network. It helps us keep at the forefront of developments in our field, keep costs down for customers, and helps ensure we are ready to facilitate a fair transition to a low-carbon economy.

Many innovative projects we work on are technical engineering solutions that both enhance and inform the way we manage our network. These may include digitising traditionally analogue systems to give network operators greater visibility of our network, or helping more green technologies to connect on our journey to Net Zero. Some of our innovations are rooted in our approach to data collection and management, others relate to the way we manage our customer service or our relationships with partners of all kinds.

This regulatory year we became the first ever network operator in the UK to establish a legally-independent Distribution System Operator, which further underlined our bold approach to innovation. Led by a director, the DSO is scrutinised by an independent Supervisory Board that is tasked with ensuring our investments provide value for customers.

Our approach to planning the future of our network is to put flexibility first. In other words, we look for ways to get the most from our network before building new infrastructure. That helps to ensure that when we do build new infrastructure it’s the right capacity in the right place at the right time.

Ambitious and groundbreaking innovations

The ambition of Net Zero continues to drive our innovations and is a recurring theme in the many advances we saw in 2023/24.

Day ahead flexibility

In March 2024, we were the first network to offer a day-ahead flexibility product at a distribution level. Daily mini tenders are held to secure services for the next day, in addition to the traditional twice-yearly flexibility tenders. These mini-tenders enable flexibility providers to give a more accurate picture of their availability, creating new business opportunities and allowing them to coordinate their services in other areas, such as wholesale markets and ancillary services. This new product helps flexibility providers manage supply and demand peaks more effectively, by allowing them to commit to changes in their operations one day in advance.

Powercast – putting EV drivers in charge

We are always looking for ways to encourage EV driving. In March 2024, we helped ev.energy launch an innovative feature on their charging app, helping EV owners stay charged in the event of a planned power cut. The app provides alerts to EV drivers about both planned and unplanned power cuts, so people can plan ahead and charge their cars before the outage starts.

Known as ‘Powercast’, the free feature works by linking ev.energy’s system with UK Power Networks’ live power cut data, which shares real-time information. ev.energy passes the key facts on to the driver and provides advice on alternative charging methods so they can make an informed decision of what to do.

Neat Heat: Trial opens the door to low carbon5heating

Decarbonising heating is a vital part of the path to Net Zero and in 2022 we launched a trial to test how we can move heat demand away from peak electricity hours. By installing suitable zero-emission, smart heating systems in homes which might have trouble installing traditional heat pumps, and by taking advantage of an innovative ‘type-of-use’ tariff developed by OVO, we proved the ability to shift electricity demand for heating outside peak hours by over 90%. The groundbreaking Neat Heat project could enable millions of small households to cut their carbon emissions significantly.

During the trial, the Zero Emission Boiler® (ZEB) ‘charged’ when electricity was cheaper or greener based on OVO's price signals. With a high-density storage core, the ZEB makes the most of off-peak tariffs to charge up overnight or during the day, efficiently storing this energy and releasing it when the thermostat calls for heat or hot water.

Support for Local Authorities planning for Net Zero

Around 100 of the 133 Local Authorities (LAs) in the UK Power Networks region have declared a climate emergency, and over 300 across the UK have done the same. LAs need help to produce and deploy an effective Local Area Energy Plan (LAEP) and UK Power Networks has developed an innovative approach to do that.

We have built a web-based geospatial tool, called Collaborative Local Energy Optimisation (CLEO) that enables Local Energy Planners to use extensive, sophisticated data sets to analyse and design ways to decarbonise their area and produce effective LAEPs that will help plan energy use for decades to come.

Spotlight

Not all our innovation is designed to cut carbon emissions directly. We also put our creative minds to addressing vulnerability and the inequalities that can trigger. The Spotlight project uses data modelling and machine learning to identify customers who may need more support with greater accuracy. It pulls together a huge range of data sources into a useable, comprehensive resource which allows us to understand our vulnerable customers with a degree of granularity that we have not seen before. The information it provides means we can shape our services and communicate with customers in ways that we know will be relevant for the needs we have identified. See here for more detail.