Northern Powergrid and partners initiate smart grid solutions to control energy costs

NORTHERN POWER GRID

Northern Powergrid and partners initiate smart grid solutions to control energy costs

By Greentech Lead Europe: Northern Powergrid and its
partners have launched The Customer-Led Network Revolution, a joint initiative
to help move the UK towards a low-carbon economy. The study aims to find out
how customers can reduce carbon emissions and save money.

About 14,000 British Gas Smart
Meters have been rolled out in the North East and Yorkshire. The
partners will be utilizing data from these smart meters for the study.

As part of the project, the partners plan to introduce low-carbon
technologies to the grid. The implementation of such technologies could save
the UK GBP 8 million in energy costs, and reduce carbon emissions by 43 million
tones within one year.

The initiative will also address new pricing models, with
the aim of finding out how the energy industry can best meet the needs of
customers at the minimum cost.

Around 2,500 customers will also be installing low-carbon
technologies to charge electric cars, heat pumps and solar PV panels –
in an attempt to control energy use and help the partners understand how the
addition of these technologies would affect the grid. That understanding will
then be extrapolated across the UK using data from over 200,000 Smart Meters.

“This is a project whose time has come. What is
being contemplated in the electricity industry is nothing short of a
revolution. It used to be that all the power came from a few power stations to
every property – and all the energy flowed one way. The prospect of smarter
networks opens up a whole new set of possibilities – customers can generate
their own energy and use home-based technology to regulate how and when they
use it,” said Phil Jones, president of Northern Powergrid.

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