Ofgem awards GBP 46.4m to 8 grid innovation projects

Nov 26, 2014 - Energy regulator Ofgem on Monday said it will provide GBP 46.4 million (USD 72.9m/EUR 58.4m) in funding to eight projects that would improve Britain’s energy networks, including efforts to facilitate the connection of more renewables.

The list of awardees includes National Grid Electricity Transmission, which will get GBP 6.9 million to find new ways to keep the national electricity network balanced as more and more renewable power capacity is connected to the grid. The GBP-9.3-million project will involve the development of new monitoring and controls for system frequency and will demonstrate the viability of obtaining rapid response from solar photovoltaic (PV), wind power capacity and other new sources.

TC Ormonde OFTO Ltd, on the other hand, will get GBP 9 million to show how a telecom-cable repair vessel can be converted so as to repair offshore electricity cables. The company will also be developing a new method of joining together different types of subsea cables in order to cut the time and cost for repairs.

British company Electricity North West also got GBP 4.4 million to investigate a range of technical, operational and commercial techniques for managing fault currents on the network.

The other companies that got Ofgem financing to help the UK’s energy networks “become smarter and more cost-efficient” are UK Power Networks, SSE Power Distribution, Western Power Distribution, Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission and National Grid Gas Transmission.

(GBP 1 = USD 1.571/EUR 1.259)

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