Reducing Energy Losses from Transmission Substations

Completed

Other Power and Storage Technologies(Electricity transmission and distribution)

Applied Research and Development

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Not Cross-cutting

Project Contact
SP Energy Networks

Network Innovation Allowance

Ofgem

01 January 2017

01 July 2019

30 months

£200,000

Power

Scotland

Network Innovation Allowance

Project Contact, SP Energy Networks

WP1 - Energy Audit Three summary reports to be produced, one for each substation, detailing the energy evaluation and measures implemented. WP2 - Physical monitoring of Substations Energy Breakdown and Analysis An energy breakdown report to be produced to contribute to the main improvement strategy report. WP3 - Building Design Evaluation To produce a report that identifies the potential improvements for the substations and their respective impacts on energy usage and cost. WP4 - Wider Substation Improvements A Quantifiable Improvement report to be written for the wider substations owned and managed by SP Transmission. Each use case will have a distinct success criteria. WP1 - Energy Audit The delivery of three reports showing the key measures which have delivered energy savings at each substation. WP2 - Physical monitoring of Substations Energy Breakdown and Analysis Production of a breakdown analysis of the loading at each of the identified substations, with an evaluation of possible energy control strategies. WP3 - Building Design Evaluation Production of a report which identifies points of improvement for the fabric of the substation buildings, with proposals for improving heating and lighting within the substations. WP4 - Wider Substation Improvements Production of a report showing the improvements which could be made across all transmission substations in the SPT Licence Area, quantifying the benefits of rolling out the changes across SPT.

At present, substation energy consumption is uncontrolled and unmonitored. Energy is consumed for a number of processes- heating, battery charging or dehumidifying, for example - to ensure network resilience and ensure the security of the electricity network. Typically, the supply for Grid substations comes from the secondary windings on 33kV neutral earthing transformers, and is unmetered. As such, substation demand is not monitored or accounted for while it contributes to the SPEN transmission losses. This project will initially aim to establish, through audits and metering, the baseline level of energy usage of a number of trial substations in the SPT licence area, and then use the collected data to model the performance of the substation buildings. These data models will allow opportunities for energy efficiency to be identified, then enable the development for a plan for substation energy efficiencyNote : Project Documents may be available via the ENA Smarter Networks Portal using the Website link above

11/12/18