Projects
Projects: Projects for Investigator |
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| Reference Number | NIA_UKPN0081 | |
| Title | High Voltage (HV) Auto Quote | |
| Status | Completed | |
| Energy Categories | Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution) 80%; Other Cross-Cutting Technologies or Research(Other Supporting Data) 20%; |
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| Research Types | Applied Research and Development 100% | |
| Science and Technology Fields | ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) 100% | |
| UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation | Not Cross-cutting 20%; Sociological economical and environmental impact of energy (Consumer attitudes and behaviour) 80%; |
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| Principal Investigator |
Project Contact No email address given UKPN London Power Networks plc |
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| Award Type | Network Innovation Allowance | |
| Funding Source | Ofgem | |
| Start Date | 01 September 2022 | |
| End Date | 30 September 2023 | |
| Duration | ENA months | |
| Total Grant Value | £2,170,410 | |
| Industrial Sectors | Power | |
| Region | London | |
| Programme | Network Innovation Allowance | |
| Investigators | Principal Investigator | Project Contact , UKPN London Power Networks plc (99.998%) |
| Other Investigator | Project Contact , Eastern Power Networks plc (0.001%) Project Contact , South Eastern Power Networks plc (0.001%) |
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| Industrial Collaborator | Project Contact , UK Power Networks (0.000%) |
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| Web Site | https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/NIA_UKPN0081 |
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| Objectives | The overall aim of the project is to enable self-service connection offer functionality for high voltage connections customers between 300 kVA and 1 MVA. It is aimed to provide budget estimates for connections between 1 MVA and 2.5 MVA. This project will deliver an externally available website to provide full high voltage connection offers to UK Power Networks customers using an interface designed to allow customers to drop an asset on a map. To do so requires detailed discovery and documentation of the current manual processes and underlying data. The processes and data will then be codified and tested against manually generated connection offers. EA Technology has a tool in business as usual (BAU) operation with another DNO, NorthernPower Grid, to provide self-service budget estimates for connections requests up to 210 kVA. This tool, based on AutoDesign, allows the customer to enter the details of their connection and it provides them with the available capacity at the LV point of connection. It then provides a budget estimate. To ensure the solution is novel and adds sufficient value the Auto Quote project will develop a new traffic management module and any other additional functionality that would enable connection offers rather than budget estimates to be provided. Delivery will be in two phases. The first phase of the project is a two month discovery phase. During the discovery phase, EA Technology will work with UK Power Networks to understand the current connection offer generation processes (data and logic) in detail. EA Technology will then develop the logical design based upon the workshop outputs. The requirements gathering and design will allow for more detailed cost estimation of the remaining work. The logical design will then be assessed by the UK Power Networks Technology Architectural Review Board. The revised project costs and schedule will be re-assessed by the UK Power Networks Innovation Steering Group.Subject to approvals, the second phase will codify the existing process and logic using an agile delivery. Agile is based upon short sprints to deliver incremental change while giving rapid feedback to ensure delivery meets expectation and to allow for requirements to change as development progresses.The Auto Quote tool will integrate into the existing suite of UK Power Networks connections web applications: Smart Connect. EA Technology will host the tool externally on Microsoft Azure. However, it is envisaged that no customer data, other than location, will be processed by Auto Quote. Customer data will follow the existing processes and Auto Quote pricing will need to integrate into existing enterprise systems. Therefore, the following activities are required:Define the current connections process and customer journey and rules Understand the existing connections web application, identifying the requirements for integration and develop and implement the solution with UK Power Networks web development partner.Identify the requirements for integration into enterprise systems and develop and implement the solutionUpon completion of the tool, prior to go live, the tool will be tested and benchmarked against known connection offers and tested with customers. Only once this has been successfully completed will the tool be publicly released. Within the first few weeks of the tool in use we will request feedback from the users of the tool. The project scope is as follows:Make geospatial and powerflow data sources within the UK Power Networks network areas accessibleEngage customers via workshops to discover and document current process requirementsProvision of improved AutoDesign engines on Azure cloud Bespoke network data translator and interfaceUK Power Networks price books, user journeys and other network specific content to be integrated in the toolDeployment of an innovative traffic management moduleUser journey mapping and website integrationIntegration with UK Power Networks website and Smart Connect systems Application trials and testingGo Live The objectives of the HV Auto Quote project are to:Discover and document the logic and data used to manually produce HV connection offers via a number of workshops with UK Power Networks HV connection offer Subject Matter ExpertsIdentify and share the data necessary to provide automated connection offersWhere sufficient data (e.g. vectorised mapping) is unavailable for full quotation, suitable guidance or exclusion is applied until the data is available.Codify the logic used to make connection offer decisions, including automating traffic management cost calculationsDevelop a self-service tool to automate firm connection offer generation for capacities between 300 kVA and 1MVA. The connection offers should be issued back to enterprise systems for the jobs to be scheduled.The same tool should provide budget estimates for capacities > 1MVA <= 2.5 MVA Define a product roadmap for future enhancementsIdentify processes and procedures required for deployment of HV Auto Quote as BAU and opportunities to scale the solution beyond UK Power Networks license areas | |
| Abstract | High Voltage (HV) Auto Quote will provide self-service connection offers to customers enquiring about connections between 300 kVA and 1 MVA. Furthermore, it aims to provide budget estimates for connections from 1 MVA to 2.5 MVA. This project will codify the tacit logic used in HV quotes to enable this automation, together with development of logic to assess the cost of traffic management (TM). TM is an increasingly large component of quotes as voltage levels increase.Budget estimates are currently offered to customers in other network areas for low voltage (LV) networks. However, lack of traffic management integration prevents connection offers being issued at HV levels. This innovation project will perform the necessary analysis and development to put connection offer requests in the hands of the consumer, allowing them to see the cost of different options interactively, reducing time to deliver connection offers and improving service delivery. | |
| Publications | (none) |
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| Final Report | (none) |
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| Added to Database | 14/10/22 | |
