Smart meter-based voltage optimisation to trial in northern England
Northern Powergrid is trialling the use of real-time smart meter data led voltage optimisation with 15,000 homes and businesses in Yorkshire.
The trial, named the Boston Spa Energy Efficiency Trial (BEET) after its location in the village of Boston Spa and surrounding areas including the town of Wetherby, involves the use of the so-called ‘BEET-Box’ to turn the voltage up or down, based on smart meter data, to the level that appliances need to work most efficiently.
The BEET-Box, developed with input from voltage control specialist Fundamentals, GE Digital, Siemens and the University of Sheffield, applies an algorithm to the smart meter data on a near real-time basis on which the voltage can be optimised, with reductions leading to energy savings and in turn bill savings.
Northern Powergrid has estimated that trial participants should save an average £28 ($35) on their annual energy bills along with a carbon footprint reduction of 20kg per year.
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“BEET is a fantastic example of how we’re innovating today to deliver future benefits for our customers,” comments Mark Callum, Smart Grid Development Manager at Northern Powergrid.
“We are trialling technology that can help us increase the efficiency of our network for our customers, whilst reducing their carbon footprint and overall energy consumption. It could also bring us one step closer to decarbonising the region, by enabling the introduction of more low carbon technologies, like electric vehicles and solar panels, onto the grid.”
With network operators typically running their system within the top end of the voltage range to ensure it does not drop below the lower limit if demand surges, the concept of voltage optimisation, or conservation voltage reduction, is not new.
But its implementation with smart meter data appears to be and Northern Powergrid’s investigation was the suggestion of local resident Keith Jackson, a retired engineer from the electricity industry, who has said the possible solution came to him after having suffered excess voltage at his home and his subsequent finding that the network regulations do not incentivise such voltage trimming.
With the concept particularly beneficial for vulnerable customers, Northern Powergrid is prioritising the rollout of the solution to areas with increased levels of fuel poverty.
If the trial is successful, then it could be rolled out across the majority of its network spanning northeast England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire by 2033.
Findings also will be shared with other network operators, with a national scale-up estimated to have the potential to deliver annual carbon savings of 1.1Mt and consumer bill cuts of up to £770 million.
Related Knowledge Center: Offshore wind energy
Over the next decade, U.S. offshore wind power is expected to grow from a single 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island to more than 2,000 MW of capacity along the Atlantic Seaboard. There are contracts for wind power off the coasts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Virginia.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory has estimated the United States has over 4,000 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind potential, enough to power the country four times over.
The growth in part being spurred by state solicitations, including in New York, where then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) set a commitment of 9,000 MW of offshore wind by 2035, and in Connecticut, where in June 2021, Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed legislation authorizing the construction of 2,000 MW of offshore wind by 2030.
The offshore development is also being driven by an investment tax credit set to end in December 2019 and is equal to 12 percent of expenditures. U.S. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) have introduced a bill to extend the tax credit for up to eight years.
The Interior Department has held eight competitive lease sales that resulted in 15 offshore wind leases over 1.7 million acres that has the potential for 21 GW of capacity. In February 2022, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed a bidding process that realized $4.37 billion for 488,000 acres across six lease areas in federal waters off New York and New Jersey.
Projects have also been proposed off the Southeast coast, off California and Hawaii, and for the Great Lakes.