Low Voltage Network Solutions Plenary session A – Monitoring Networks Dan Randles Quality of Supply and Technical Manager/LCNF Tier 1 Manager

Aims and Objectives 1 Aim to improve understanding of existing and future characteristics of Electricity Northwest’s Low Voltage (LV) networks and to aid development of future policy and practice Three key themes of the project LV Network Monitoring LV Network Modelling LV Network Solutions 3 year project started in April 2011 costing £1.5M

Network Monitoring 2 Scope of the deployment 200 x 11kV or 6.6kV to 415V distribution substations Over 1000 LV feeders Sites comprise indoor and outdoor, mostly ground mounted with small number of pole mounted transformers Analogues to be captured RMS voltages and currents Real and reactive power 3ø + neutral Temperature (Ambient, Tx) Real-time (1 minute averages!) Harmonics (not real time) Metrology and Communications (V, I, Q, P, H, Temp) GPRS/3G Private APN ENW iHost UoM DB Offline data transfer

Data Flow 3

Installations (1) 4

Installations (2) 5

Installations (3) 6

Feeder mid-point and end-point 7 Low Voltage Smart joint takes monitoring beyond the substation Utilises the Gridkey ‘grid hound’ current sensor 3-phase service cable used for phase voltages (IPCs) Gridkey metrology and communication unit to be mounted at street level with separate communications channel to iHOST Metrology

Demand characteristics 1 minute resolution provides interesting insights … … now we just need to understand what it means … 8

Lessons learnt 9 Installation resources IT and system integration issues Customer impact must be minimised True partnering approach with all project stakeholders Flexible solutions needed owing to on-site variations Site surveys essential to avoid problems Installation quality including anti tamper/vandal Large volumes of data being generated which needs managing – requires new tools/systems

Network Modelling 10 Validate Extract Analyse

Networks solutions 11 Its about specifications, standards, policies and practices; understanding how these ought to evolve The adoption at scale of low carbon technologies will have a significant impact on LV networks Voltage rise/drop Congestion/overload of assets Monitoring is key to firstly understanding the capabilities of LV networks both now and in the future and secondly facilitating smart operation Trade-off between visibility and cost Sampling rates should be appropriate Appears likely that active means of controlling voltages and loadings in LV networks will be implemented in the future Significant change in operation and planning procedures for DNOs

Thank you 12 Any questions…? Key contact names Dan Randles (Electricity Northwest) Paul Beck/Oliver Burstall (Gridkey) Julian Brown/Simon Hodgson (Nortech) Dr Luis Ochoa (UoM)