National Grid project to reduce grid bottlenecks
National Grid is working with Smart Wires on an innovation project to make better use of grid enhancing technologies such as advanced power flow controllers.
Image for illustration purposes.
UK, London: National Grid is working with Smart Wires on an innovation project to make better use of grid enhancing technologies such as advanced power flow controllers. The aim is to reduce network congestion and maximise the potential of existing infrastructure to deliver more clean energy. The Network Innovation Allowance-funded project’s goal is to develop a tool to coordinate the installation and operation of advanced power flow control (APFC) devices like Smart Wires’ SmartValve.
The innovation project’s aim is for the new tool to help coordinate the dispatch of existing APFCs on the network, while identifying the best locations for additional grid enhancing technologies to be installed in the future. Following an innovation project in 2019 to investigate the benefits of power flow controllers, National Grid installed SmartValves at three substations in northern England (Harker, Penwortham and Saltholme) to operate across five circuits, with a further installation in planning at South Shields. Around £390 million is estimated to be saved over a seven-year period due to reduced constraint costs and avoided expenditure on new infrastructure build, and over 2 GW of north-south power flow capacity could be unlocked.
Source: National Grid