With the current rise in domestic Low Carbon Technologies (LCT) only set to continue, our teams across SSEN Distribution are busy behind the scenes making sure that the electricity network is ready to deal with the accompanying increase in demand.
Our investment plans for the next price control period (2023-28) have been designed with the acceleration towards a net-zero world in mind, preparing the electricity network for LCT such as heat pumps and electric vehicles, and our aim is to facilitate the connection of up to 1.3 million electric vehicles and 800,000 heat pumps on our network by 2028.
We have a Data and Analytics team that specialises in analysing highly granular information and, using their expertise, we've developed a "bottom-upwards" view of the electricity network - this is allowing our network planners and strategists to explore the changes we need to make through four Distribution Future Energy Scenarios.
The Data and Analytics team uses a series of complex methodologies (endpoint modelling) combined with more traditional approaches (Maximum Demand measurements), SCADA and local substation monitoring to baseline the load at all points on our Low Voltage and High Voltage networks.
This allows us to pinpoint where and when additional network capacity is needed across the whole of our network.
In addition, the Distribution Future Energy Scenarios show the development path for each local High Voltage and Low Voltage transformer individually, and granular analysis applies macroeconomics with a detailed understanding of the customers served by each individual asset.
The findings of all these reports mean that the Data and Analytics team is able to focus on individual assets to model future congestion, and therefore provide a detailed understanding of the steps required for our company to support Low Carbon Technologies.
Tomorrow we'll look more into how, by analysing broader data, we can develop our plans for the increase in demand from Low Carbon Technologies.