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ESO Innovation Strategy

Our position at the heart of the energy system means we play a central role in overcoming the challenges associated with the transition to a zero carbon future.

Innovation is critical to help us meet these challenges. 

On this page, you can download our refreshed ESO Innovation Strategy document which sets out our innovation priorities – summarised below – for the first year of our RIIO-2 regulatory period.

National Grid ESO - Innovation Strategy 2021 - Man and woman in office glowlines

Innovation Strategy 2021

The ESO Innovation Strategy has been developed in consultation with industry and informed by the outputs of our Bridging the Gap work.

It sets out how we need to innovate in 2021/22 and where we want to focus our efforts to set us on the right path to 2025 and beyond.

Download the Innovation Strategy

Our priorities for 2020/21

01 Digital Transformation 02 Future Markets03 Constraint Management 04 Whole Energy System 05 System Stability06 Forecasting of Supply and Demand07 Whole Electricity System 08 System Restoration

01 Digital Transformation

What are we aiming to achieve?

Efficient digital processes established across GB energy system; the power of Big Data and associated technologies fully leveraged; new insights created and shared; and new services developed and accessed.

Find out more in our Digitalisation Strategy 

What is informing our approach?

The energy sector is moving away from being siloed, becoming more integrated and the number of new players is rapidly increasing. The democratisation of data, through greater transparency and presumed open access is crucial and is driving digitalisation across the whole system.

A more complex, faster-moving electricity system needs much faster decision-making. Machine learning is needed to process the amount of data required to make the most economic decisions quickly enough.

As the electricity networks become more reliant on data and aging technologies, the risk of cyber-attacks and the need for a faster response to such attacks becomes greater.

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

Our ultimate goal is to build a Digital Twin of both the power system, as well as markets.

Where can the application of AI and machine learning techniques contribute across all of our activities?

How can we continue to enhance our power system modelling capabilities, as system characteristics continue to get increasingly complex?

We will work on the Control Room of the Future – how can we provide our control engineers with all the information they need in an efficient manner?

02 Future Markets

What are we aiming to achieve?

Competition everywhere, with greater market participation on the supply and demand-side, including all participant types and sizes. As consumers transition from a passive to a more active role in their energy usage with the uptake of smart technologies, we must identify how to best facilitate their participation in our markets.

What is informing our approach?

As we transform to a zero-carbon electricity system, it is increasingly important to explore markets for new services that can meet changing system needs, as well as markets for new products. It is also critical that we facilitate a level playing field for all participants, both traditional and emerging to further promote competition.

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

How to remove barriers to new and existing markets for smaller participants and new technology types?

What effective new market modelling tools can we use to assess future market designs and interactions?

What new potential consumer markets are out there? What are their technical characteristics and entry conditions?

 

03 Constraint Management

What are we aiming to achieve?

Optimised management of networks across transmission and distribution with minimal curtailment of renewable generation and at minimum overall cost to consumers.

What is informing our approach?

Understanding the risk of constraints occurring and managing these effectively is becoming increasingly difficult due to more uncertainties in supply and demand patterns. If constraints can’t be avoided or managed in the most efficient way, costs for consumers can increase dramatically.

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

How can long-term energy storage (electrochemical, thermal, or mechanical) reduce year-round constraints?

Can low-carbon hydrogen production be appropriately sited at advantageous locations to reduce constraints?

How can we use data and new technologies to either increase transfer initially, or provide a fast acting, automated response to a system condition?

04 Whole Energy System

What are we aiming to achieve?

A holistic, integrated view across all energy vectors and sectors that supports efficient and effective system planning, development and operation.

What is informing our approach?

The ongoing conversation around the decarbonisation of heat and transport, combined with electricity systems’ increased reliance on gas for flexibility (particularly on the distribution networks), present us with a crucial opportunity to consider the energy system as a whole, across multiple vectors (i.e. electricity and the multiple gas types) and the sectors this supports (e.g. heat, power, transport, industry).

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

How can we model the whole energy system across all sectors and incorporate this into our work with FES, NOA, and Early Competition?

Hydrogen impacts assessment, feasibility studies, and modelling

What flexibility services can be created for the electricity network as other sectors decarbonise?

05 System Stability

What are we aiming to achieve?

Safe, reliable and secure operation of a zero-carbon electricity system by 2025

What is informing our approach?

Synchronous generation supports the stability of the system. As we transform to a zero-carbon electricity system, synchronous generation capacity is decreasing, and the system is becoming less stable. This results in faster system frequency changes, less voltage and fault ride-through stability, and makes it more difficult for both synchronous and non-synchronous generators to operate safely.

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

How can we best model stability in an increasingly non-synchronous system?

How can we speed up some of our processes, or automate them in order to keep up with a lower inertia system?

Understand the behaviour of new technologies and their impact on the system, e.g. Virtual Synchronous Machines, V2G, etc. to support their participation in future Stability Pathfinder procurement.

06 Forecasting of Supply and Demand

What are we aiming to achieve?

Sophisticated and accurate energy forecasting in both operational and planning timescales.

What is informing our approach?

This considers both, short as well as long term forecasting. Lack of visibility of intermittent embedded generation on electricity networks, combined with more complex usage patterns, makes short-term forecasting of electricity supply and demand increasingly difficult.

Long-term supply and demand forecasting are becoming harder to carry out as new technologies and global market forces emerge.

These could lead to dramatically different end-user behaviours.

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

How do new types of consumer demand (EVs, electric heat) actually behave during normal operation? What do their demand profiles look like for different demographics?

How can we better understand the impact of forecast error on control room actions?

How can we further integrate AI, ML, and big data techniques into our forecasting processes?

07 Whole Electricity System

What are we aiming to achieve?

Efficient and effective planning and operation across transmission and distribution.

What is informing our approach?

New decentralised energy resources are connecting to distribution networks, turning them into active networks and transforming the role of Distribution Network Operators. Many of these new resources can provide valuable services to us, increasing competition in our markets as well as to those of emerging Distribution System Operators (DSOs).

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

Joint innovation projects to solve issues affecting both transmission and distribution networks though Regional Development Programmes.

How can new markets providing distribution network flexibility work efficiently alongside transmission level markets?

Can we build more complex whole system models which incorporate both ESO and DSO data?

08 System Restoration

What are we aiming to achieve?

Ability to restore GB from total or partial shutdown, with zero carbon sources, by 2025, at minimum cost to consumers.

What is informing our approach?

The availability of conventional Black Start service providers will decrease as part of the shift away from conventional thermal generation. New solutions are needed to ensure that we can maintain, and improve on, our capability to restore the system.

What are some of the opportunities for innovation?

Continue to deliver Distributed Restart to facilitate Black Start from DER and address any issues this might uncover.

Testing automated controllers and end-to-end telecoms on the live power system.

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