Our story
At EA Technology, our mission is "to promote the development of resilient, accessible, low-cost energy networks globally, accelerating the transition to energy decarbonisation". It's in our DNA and we are passionate about it!
We educate and facilitate the introduction of low carbon technologies. We work collaboratively with regulators, organisations and partners to manage the effects of climate change. We make it our business to deliver innovative solutions to operators of power networks globally. We help accelerate progress towards clean growth, adaptation and resilience of energy networks.
As we continue on our transition to Net Zero, data, particularly from the low voltage network is a key enabler. This data is crucial to decisions about the optimum locations to site renewable generation, Electric Vehicle (EV) chargers and battery storage as well as other network connection requests.
In partnership with SP Energy Networks, the distribution network operator responsible for the local area, this project has installed our VisNet Hub technology in 673 substations across Cheshire's Energy Innovation District. We believe that this initiative will make the area the most monitored Low Voltage electricity network in the world.
We expect that the data made available will assist stakeholders (Local Authorities, Companies, Low Carbon Generators, EV Charging Point Providers), in the installation and commissioning of further low carbon technologies in the region.
Our advice
The main challenge about this project has been to communicate it clearly and articulate why the data is of interest. Decarbonisation necessitates greater electrification, and a move away from fossil fuels. To achieve this by 2050 requires increased efficiency and making the best use of existing capacity on the electricity network before reinforcement (upgrading) is required.
The network data that this project is making available could help:
Energy generation and storage investors interested in identifying capacity constraints to inform location selections;
Energy consumers researching opportunities for demand side measures, e.g. reduced EV charging, deferred space heating, management of battery storage solutions;
Traders creating local energy markets for trading variable loads with variable generation within the sub-region, and
EV chargepoint installers and operators wanting to locate new sites.
We want to generate interest in the electricity system; we have tried to make the data easily understandable and to explain why some of the load curves from some substations differ from others depending on the customers it serves.
Our Changeprint
Our Changeprint can be measured by network coverage - the number/percentage of substations equipped with VisNet Hub technology (e.g. 673 installed across the Energy Innovation District); the number of stakeholders such as local authorities, EV operators and renewable developers accessing or using the network data to inform decisions; the number of new low-carbon technologies (e.g. EV chargers, solar or battery storage units) installed using insights from the data; direct evidence of reduced need for costly network reinforcement or improved load management enabled by data-driven planning.
