46 SOLUTIONS FOR FUTUREPROOFING GRID CONNECTIONS ROUND TABLE REVIEW
very scary. The reality is, it is nowhere near as much as that – we can think we can drive it as low as 2.6 kW, only marginally more than a traditional build.”
Burke said NESO is developing data sharing infrastructure and a Demand Flexibility Service, but that “will not necessarily mean a roll out of greater levels of on-network detection infrastructure.” He added: “until that’s done, this issue and the nominated capacity issue may not be resolved, we may therefore still end up with a lot of capacity on the network, still not being used.” Johnson cited a major housing development in north London of which was hoping to start in 2026, “but they were told they wouldn’t get capacity until 2037, and it would cost over 100 million pounds. It destroys a project.” He added: “What frustrates me is there is capacity, but how do we get it?” Dan Neasham said using anonymised ‘asset-level’ smart meter data gathered from homes “at MPAN registration stage, describing the heating system in more detail,” offered hope, but Johnson said that from Hoare Lea’s experience doing this, GDPR was “a real constraint. Tobias Burke predicted “by the end of the decade” more of this data would be available, beginning with ‘fault level’ information, but Johnson countered; “We have a problem right now.” Ben Tibbett however warned that for SME developers, if information around potential constraints was “introduced too early, and they fi nd out they have a serious issue, then you’re never going to put them into the planning process.” He cited a housebuilder which was looking to sell their consented site on, and move into the commercial sector: “it’s going to be 2029/30 until they can get the next [grid] reinforcement through; they’re not worried about the cost, they’re worried about the timing.” Wojtulewicz posed a scenario of a housebuilder being “told that by 2029 they’ll defi nitely have a connection for the fi nal third of a site – what does he do? Does he build two thirds of the homes and hope he gets the connection?”
Cost of connections
As part of possible standardisation around some aspects of connections, Tobias Burke said Ofgem was going to look at standardisation of costings. “It is often lacking transparency and not really well understood by even the DNOs themselves. They are going to introduce much stricter obligations on the network companies on timelines.”
Luisa Mostarda pinpointed barriers around payment with developers, whereas in the commercial sector they are “usually more cash rich,” and a lack of defi ned milestones on the programme – “you need to have some things fi xed when applying for power.” While
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delegates wanted to see focus on electricity infrastructure alongside homes in local plans, Ben Tibbett pondered whether “we would just see the power companies remodelled like the water industry, where they’re all holding back, waiting for Government to wade in with wedges of cash so they can reinforce their network.” Johnson said there was a “slightly circular” situation where if you have planning you don’t have to pay for [connection], as it’s not deemed as speculative.” He said DNOs “can be overcome,” and “bigger developers can usually throw money at it to do the reinforcement themselves and bypass the constraint.” On the other hand, IDNOs can “socialise that cost by fi nding other developers and bringing them together,” he added. However, he cautioned that “transmission constraints were where the big housebuilder bumps into the big reordering that’s going on, which has very much got its head in generation at the moment.” And as in many other areas, there is not currently the skilled manpower to do all of the grid reinforcement works that will be required. Luke Osborne said grid fl exibility was being driven by the idea of ‘prosumers’ both consuming and producing energy, and the potential of communal electricity storage, with “very fl exible energy assets” e.g. smart grids to reduce connection size and cost. Johnson said while this currently wasn’t possible over 1 mW without a licence, he’d “love to see [the connection framework] adapted to that way of thinking.” He also advocated “Independent Transmission System Operators” building networks, enabling IDNOs to create local substations. Dan Neasham said there’s a “huge piece of work to be done on the opportunities around load shifting [e.g. from heat pumps to other tech] and just more, smarter use of controls.” In the second session of the debate we would hear more around one such shifting opportunity, namely the new DynamiX system from E.ON.
A ‘Dynamic’ innovation for fl exible demand
In the second session of the debate, John Hadley of E.ON outlined the fi rm had extended its existing high and low voltage services to developers with an innovative system for controlling the energy demand from low carbon tech, and tackling the grid constraint issues aired at the round table. The DynamiX system recently obtained G100 approval for use in networks from the Energy Networks Association, meaning it won’t be long before developers have access to it.
He outlined how the combination of software and connection infrastructure can help developers of all sizes address grid capacity and grid constraints by smoothing demand peaks. It reduces the peak demand calculation of a scheme predicated on EV charging and heat pumps in particular, as well as solar PV returning energy, meaning substations can potentially be smaller. The theory is developments could be fully built out to their quota where previously grid capacity would only support a developer building up to a lower level of units. John Hadley explained further: “A lot of sites will have capacity quite a lot of the time, but it’s the peak where you have the problem. You go beyond what’s available in the grid, and you lose a substation, and then you’re losing power to the whole site, because you’re fl ipping it over.” An essential selling point is that it’s “monitoring the power, not monitoring the money,” he said. DynamiX is a system in two parts; fi rstly a ‘concentrator’ unit on the low voltage/’power out’ side of the substation. “By connecting it that side, we can also see what power availability there is from the grid, through the concentrator,” says Hadley. The second is a meter in each home, between the isolator switch and consumer unit, connected via power lines to the PV inverter, EV charger, and heat pump.
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