Reflecting on experiences and learning from 18 years of innovation

Some of the team at Smarter Grid Solutions (SGS) recently sat down to take stock of the many innovation projects that we have delivered over the last 18 years. Of all of these projects, we are most proud of the progression of our Strata Grid DER Management System (DERMS) platform from early innovation trials to an established business-as-usual solution for Distribution Network Operators (DNOs). The role of Strata Grid as the key enabler for Active Network Management (ANM) across GB is our proudest achievement to date, and it’s probably the one that we’re best known for across the industry. But one thing that came through in that review was the sheer diversity of themes across those innovation projects. Whilst some in our industry may perceive SGS as ‘the ANM company’ these projects reflect the breadth of capability within the SGS team, and in doing so justify the identity that many of us hold as ‘innovators’.

In this article, we share some of those reflections from our experiences delivering innovation, considering how this has built and expanded capability within our team, and acknowledging the wider themes and capabilities demonstrated ‘beyond ANM’. Spanning themes such as flexibility, resilience, coordinated voltage control, system optimisation, and whole-system planning, the projects we explore here demonstrate the breadth of innovative areas where the Smarter Grid Solutions team has helped utilities address emerging network challenges and support the energy transition. 

Innovation as a foundation to build capability and expertise

Innovation projects have clearly specified outputs that the teams work towards, for example the network demonstration of a new technology, control method, or flexibility concept. On reflection however, it is often during the journey to those outputs that we see additional incremental innovations and development of new capability in tools.

In delivering innovation projects we’ve not just collaborated with DSOs, but also fellow technology providers and industry partners. Collaboration across a wide range of stakeholders has been essential to develop and test new approaches to emerging network challenges. Reflecting on these projects, our team has highlighted cases where ancillary benefits were derived across areas such as:

• Distribution network planning and analysis: often used to perform value-case assessment of a solution prior to network demonstration, these activities were often defining new planning methodologies, integrating new network solutions into traditional planning methodologies, and building tools to automate study of emerging innovative technologies.
• Flexible connections and flexibility assessment: innovation projects have accelerated the development of tools for time-series study of flexible connections, constraint management, and DSO flexibility services. Projects did not just define operating principles, but delivered tools and methods required to study these.
• Decision support tools for network operators: analysis methods and tools initially built for the planning-domain ‘off-line’ study have been refined and found their way into operational settings, informing decision making closer to real-time.

The projects have covered themes such as network flexibility, resilience, voltage control coordination and whole-system optimisation, resulting in practical methodologies and tools that help organisations manage constraints, integrate DERs and make more informed operational decisions. Importantly, these topics are not only related to Active Network Management or DERMS, the themes most commonly associated with SGS.

As we work towards network demonstration of new innovations, there is huge value in the growth and development of our own teams. A welcome side-effect of successful innovation projects is a team that combines deep technical expertise with real-world experience delivering innovative solutions to complex network challenges.

Key Innovation Themes

The following sections reflect on the broad themes explored across our innovation projects, highlighting how our teams have been exploring new network functionality, building out analytical capability, and demonstrating smarter ways of operating networks that is way beyond the ‘ANM only’ perception.

As the energy transition accelerates, network operators are increasingly looking for ways to maximise the use of existing infrastructure and accommodate new low-carbon technologies without relying solely on traditional reinforcement. Through a range of innovation projects, SGS has helped develop and demonstrate solutions that improve network flexibility, increase hosting capacity and support the integration of new energy resources. Some examples include:

Active Fault Level Management (AFLM)

This project, led by SP Energy Networks explored how existing fault level headroom can be utilised more effectively, helping network operators avoid or defer reinforcement while increasing generation hosting capacity on constrained networks. SGS explored approaches to improve fault level headroom across Monitoring, Measurement, Modelling and Management, leading to the development of the Active Fault Level Management control method, maximising generator headroom whilst maintaining safe grid operation. We worked with SP Energy Networks to implement as a live system within a pre-production environment used for trials prior to future plans to implement on a live network. Ancillary benefits of the project involved developing methods allowing study of high numbers of network contingency for study of fault level but also compliance with other network operating limits.

Optime Prime

As electric vehicle adoption continues to grow, SGS supported UKPN and Hitachi Vantara on trial activities investigating the impacts of fleet electrification and strategies for managing charging across both depot-based and non-depot fleets, helping to minimise network impacts while supporting efficient fleet operations. Our consultants supported the specification of control Use Cases, creating step-by-step specification of the actions required for smart charging. SGS led the development of the DNO side of the control solution modifications to SGS’s Strata Grid platform, working with UKPN to develop the use cases, functional requirements, control architecture design and flexibility markets which were thoroughly tested during the trial phase linking to the vehicle charging management system.

Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning & Transport (ADEPT)

SGS provided the Smart Energy Operations Platform for ADEPT, demonstrating how renewable generation, electric vehicles and building energy systems can be monitored and coordinated through a single platform. The project explored opportunities to optimise on-site energy usage and enable participation in electricity markets.

2. Resilience

As electricity networks become increasingly critical to daily life, improving resilience has become a key area of innovation. SGS has supported projects exploring how distributed energy resources and battery energy storage can help maintain supplies during outages, particularly in rural and remote communities where restoration times may be extended. These projects have demonstrated how local energy resources can enhance reliability while supporting a more flexible and decentralised energy system. Examples include:

MicroResilience

Led by Northern Powergrid, this project focused on the development and trial of innovative ESS and communications technology to seamlessly transition local low voltage (LV) networks to a local ESS supply during supply interruptions, supporting critical infrastructure and isolated communities where supply repairs can be severely delayed by bad weather. SGS has played a major role throughout this project from project definition through to developing and integrating the local microgrid control management system and communications with the DNO control room via the Distribution Management System.

Resilience as a Service (RaaS)

Led by Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, RaaS improves energy security in rural and remote areas by combining BESS with local ES to provide low carbon, cost effective network resilience in response to faults that would otherwise result in a loss of supply to primary substation fed HV networks. SGS developed the vendor-agnostic design for the DNO side RaaS controller which provided a control and monitoring interface between the DNO control room and the local network, including the interface with the main RaaS asset to ensure safe operation and control room intervention where required.

MultiResilience

Building on learning from both MicroResilience (NIA) and RaaS (NIC) projects, MultiResilience aims to demonstrate the enhanced value of coordinated deployment of multiple MicroResilience solutions in a network area. SGS is developing and delivering the MultiResilience controller which will coordinate the application of multiple microgrid local controllers to provide both LV and HV resilience services for various network topologies depending on fault location and microgrid asset availability. This involves close collaboration with DNO design and protection teams to establish the requirements and design for the solution prior to the build and deployment stage.

3. Coordinating of voltage control

The transition to a net-zero energy system requires closer coordination between electricity networks, transport, heating and emerging energy vectors such as hydrogen. Through a range of innovation projects, SGS has explored how data, forecasting, new cross vector network planning tools and operational control can support more integrated planning and operation across these interconnected energy systems, helping maximise efficiency and accelerate decarbonisation. Examples of projects we have worked on:

CHARGE

The CHARGE project explored how data-driven planning approaches can better coordinate the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and electricity networks. By improving the alignment between transport electrification and network planning, this SPEN project delivered a faster and more efficient transition to low-carbon transport. SGS was responsible for design and demonstration of Smart Charging Connection (SCC) solutions that enhance the flexibility of EV charging and support the improved hosting of charging infrastructure without expensive reinforcement. Our activities in the project spanned underlying benefits case analysis via network-wide simulation study, design and development of the charging management solution, trial implementation, followed by learning capture and dissemination.

Cross Vector Energy Hub – SIF Discovery

This project investigated the feasibility of coordinating electricity, gas and green hydrogen systems to improve whole-system outcomes. The concept explored how surplus renewable generation could be used to support green hydrogen production, reduce electricity export curtailment and provide benefits across both gas and electricity networks. The project's success led to progression into a Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) Alpha phase project where SGS developed a prototype planning tool focused on identifying technical designs for cross vector energy hubs and where they should connect into electricity and gas distribution networks while establishing the cost benefit analysis to developers and the cost benefits to electricity and gas distribution utility companies, their customers and the wider society. This whole system network planning approach while focused on one particular multi vector use case demonstrated the potential of this combined techno-economic operational digital twin approach to planning that could be extended to wider use cases.

Looking Ahead

As the energy system becomes increasingly decentralised and data-rich, network operators need new tools to support faster and more informed decision-making. The delivery of innovation continues to require experienced teams that understand both the unique challenges of delivering demonstration projects, and the importance of learning and dissemination to deliver true value from these projects.  

Building on 18 years of innovation in DER integration, operational control and network optimisation, we continue to explore how advanced analytics and AI can complement our in-house engineering expertise. We believe the next generation of planning and operational tools will help network operators better understand network conditions, optimise the use of existing infrastructure and unlock greater value from distributed energy resources.

Our vision remains unchanged: to develop practical, data-driven and robust solutions that enable the safe, reliable and economically efficient operation of the energy networks of the future.

We will be attending the Energy Innovation Summit at the SEC Glasgow on 4th and 5th November. If you're attending, we'd welcome the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing modern electricity networks and share how our innovation experience is helping utilities deliver a smarter, more flexible and resilient energy system. We look forward to connecting with industry peers and exploring future opportunities for collaboration.