National Grid and regional operators boost resilience

Part of National Grid’s Regional Development Plan (RDP), the first step in the overhaul, has seen a new system introduced to manage electricity flows between the national system and South East England’s regional system, which is run by UK Power Networks (UKPN). Up to 600MW of distributed energy resources (DERs) in the South East – which up until now have not been fully integrated with the national system – can now link to UK’s primary grid even under difficult conditions such as when faults occur on the network. This is facilitated by a new system that links the local control room of UKPN to the centralised control room of National Grid, providing better visibility and helping to keep a balanced electricity supply.

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“If we want to enable net zero by 2050 then we cannot afford to wait, and that’s why we have adopted a ‘trial by doing’ approach, working closely with the national transmission system operator to deliver cost-effective solutions,” said Sotiris Georgiopoulos, head of smart grid at UK Power Networks.