Scottish Hydro Electric Power Distribution PLC Public Funding

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Creosote is a tar-based wood preservative used to protect utility poles, but it is also an environmental contaminant that can leach into soil and water, posing serious health and ecological risks. The UK energy network utilises creosote-treated poles for overhead-line distribution due to their long service life, with SSEN operating over 1 million and replacing around 20,000 annually. This project explores the natural enzymatic capabilities of certain microbes to break down of creosote contaminants. CREOS-OUT's bioremediation approach offers an eco-friendly alternative to costly incineration, enabling safer reuse of infrastructure while supporting sustainable grid expansion, and reducing public and environmental risks.

As electricity networks face growing pressure for connections, the need for smarter, faster, and more flexible network solutions becomes essential. Dynamic Rating (DR) allows electricity network assets, particularly overhead lines, to operate closer to their real-time thermal capacity by accounting for environmental conditions. Dynamic, Data Driven Asset Rating (3DAR) will identify those circuits where DR could be deployed to release additional headroom, overlay future constraints with mapped additional capacity from DR to facilitate assessment at scale. 3DAR will allow DR to be scaled at distribution level, productising the solution to embed it within processes and accelerate network connections.

As society moves towards Net Zero, some people will easily participate in the energy transition, others, either by choice or factors outside their control, will not. To ensure an equitable transition, energy networks need to cater for all consumers. For the first time, VERIFY will combine data on networks, properties, consumer demographics and smart meters to ensure DNOs are able to better tailor network investments to match the needs of local consumers. Collaborating with local authorities, charities, and powerful computing technologies, VERIFY will evaluate the most cost efficient and beneficial solutions for energy networks and consumers alike.

_To achieve clean power by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050, UK food production must move away from fossil fuels. With approximately 209,000 farm holdings in 2023, energy networks must adapt prepared to meet different future rural energy demands driven by greenhouse gas reductions and climate change adaptation._ _The Future Agriculture Resilience Mapping (FARM) project will:_ _1\. Support UK food production and security by understanding future energy requirements, transition pathways, and the associated network requirements._ _2\. Identify clear commercial, policy and planning actions for DNOs, the agricultural sector, and policy makers._

It is essential that Protected Sites (PSs), e.g. hospitals and military sites, have a resilient energy supply to meet critical requirements. Most protected sites currently use fossil-fuels for heat and backup solutions. For Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), supporting protected sites' transition to electrified heating will require providing additional capacity whilst maintaining the requisite level of resilience, involving major infrastructure investment. Utilising a coordinated, flexible approach to heat demand offers the opportunity to offset some of these costs . FORTRESS's hospitals use case demonstrates these diverse resilience needs, from critical-care to administrative buildings, analysing innovative heat flexibility strategies for DNOs.

To meet the demand that heat pumps and other LCTs will place on the network significant reinforcement will be required, it is critical that the cost of scale of this is managed effectively. EqualLCT will accelerate the roll out of heat pumps combined alongside energy efficiency and flexibility products to facilitate the transition to net zero while also ensuring that peak heat demand is reduced thereby reducing the levels of network reinforcement that would otherwise be needed. Attractive commercial offerings will facilitate the net zero transition, reduce bills for customers through reduced network reinforcement costs and in home energy efficiency.

As rural industries decarbonise, they may find this transition challenging. This is where Network operators can provide valuable support to help them make the right decisions. Rural networks are often characterised by radial circuits with limited capacity. These circuits are harder and more expensive to reinforce. RIDES will develop a tool to show rural industries their potential decarbonisation pathways. It will also help network companies to understand what their future investments needs will be, allowing efficient, coordinated investment by network companies and their customers. RIDES will smooth and accelerate the path to net zero for rural industry

With increasing demand for both electrification and renewables connections, many areas of the distribution network are approaching their capacity and will need intervention. Traditionally, DNOs can reinforce the network or procure flexibility services to meet these peaks. These are costly solutions that can have long lead times. By leveraging dynamic asset ratings at scale for the first time at distribution level, this project enables the deployment of a data-driven solution that optimises capacity through real-time, localised weather data and asset modelling. 3DAR will enhance network investment planning, reducing costs and ensuring long-term resilience for faster, more efficient connections.

A Digital Twin for Energy Grids

no public description

Trustworthy ML approaches to energy consumption data

Digital and dynamic approaches to Local Area Energy Planning.

This project is a ground-breaking demonstration of a whole renewable hydrogen system. A large 1MWe electrolyser will be connected to the grid, in conjunction with an Aberdeenshire wind farm to explore the grid impacts and energy storage potential of hydrogen generation. This hydrogen will be collected in tube trailers using novel tube trailer filling equipment. It will then be transported to an urban centre (Aberdeen), where it will be used to fuel a fleet of 10 new fuel cell buses on inter-urban duties. The project will accelerate the development of hydrogen as an energy store and also the uptake of hydrogen in public transport applications.