We unveil innovative network project

Europe's largest electricity network monitoring initiative has been completed by us.



The Network Templates project was supported through Ofgem’s Low Carbon Networks Fund (LCNF). It took place in South Wales over three years, capturing and analysing over 500 million network measurements to establish for the first time how loads at distribution substations vary across different timescales and geographic settings.

Monitors were installed at over 800 substations and 3,600 customer connection points on the network to collect readings every 10 minutes and the data, which was stored at Bath University, has enabled WPD to create 10 templates.

The templates accurately characterise load patterns in a variety of urban, suburban and rural environments. WPD worked with specialist partners and other network operators to ensure the templates were relevant nationally and could be applied to aid future network planning – at a time of growing demand for low carbon technologies like solar panels.

Roger Hey, WPD’s Future Networks Manager explained: “The templates will help identify hotspots where network infrastructure upgrades are needed and where additional generation is best connected. This will save money and minimise disruption.

"Insight from the project also enables us, and the wider industry, to base our future planning on accurate data rather than estimates. A good example of this is that we established that the actual capacity used by low carbon installations, like solar panels, was about 20% less than we had previously assumed in our planning."

Welsh Government Minister for Natural Resources, Alun Davies, praised the initiative. He said: "I congratulate Western Power Distribution on this interesting and innovative work and look forward to working closely with them and our other partners as we continue to develop a vibrant low carbon economy for Wales."