Planning Regional Infrastructure in a Digital Environment (PRIDE Discovery)

Project Summary 

SIF AIMS PRIDE creates a digital twin of regional infrastructure including energy systems, data for properties, etc., to support decision-making. It provides advanced visualisation capabilities and supports embedded scenario-based modelling. Decarbonising major energy demands is therefore accelerated as the digital twin supports the selection of options that are faster and/or better overall value for money to deploy.

The Innovation

PRIDE will assess use cases to support decision-making and rank their potential impact under different governance structures. We will determine where:

• Use case requirements are already met
• Minor enhancements are required
• Entirely new datasets/models are needed We will develop a plan for an enhanced prototype to be developed in the Alpha phase. The potential for integration with the National Grid Virtual Energy System (VES) will be assessed.

Experience and Capability

Advanced Infrastructure is an enterprise SaaS partner for DNOs and local governments. The company leads the digitalisation of the Energy System Catapult methodology for Local Area Energy Planning in the form of the LAEP+ tool. The partner has delivered multiple projects under the Government Design Principles and developed tools for data management, visualisation and zoning and AP integrations with network capacity assessment. The partner has worked on past NIA RESOP and Innovate UK PfER LEO projects. Date of Submission Jul 2023 Project Reference Number NGED - SIF - 10060736 Project Reference Number NGED - SIF - 10060736 Project Licensee(s) National Grid Electricity Distribution Project Start April 2023 Project Duration 3 Months Nominated Project Contact(s) Jenny Woodruff Project Budget £145,157.00

The WMCA's Energy Capital provides specialist knowledge of place-based energy innovation and stakeholder involvement in whole energy systems, where giving cities and localities a stronger role within the UK's current energy regulations offers significant potential for added value, while supporting net zero transition. The WMCA has completed the prior work needed to inform the development of PRIDE within the context of whole system planning and delivery and have a detailed understanding of local needs.

NGED brings experience of automated network modelling and forecasting future load profiles from EPIC, the energy efficiency modelling within DEFENDER and the understanding of local flexibility from Equinox and Future Flex. NG ESO's VES development provides background experience for creating and managing digital twins.

Users

The project's outputs are designed to support decarbonisation investment decision-makers. PRIDE addresses their needs by developing tools for the use cases of greatest value under different organisational structures. PRIDE paves the way for a Beta phase trial using the tool to assess local engagement and governance process, bringing together decision-makers and utilising the WMCA's Net Zero Infrastructure Delivery Panel governance structure. This would provide valuable evidence for the ESOs future system operator work and Ofgem's local governance programme.

• Problem(s)

  PRIDE tackles the problem of regional infrastructure investment decisions failing to take local impacts and opportunities into account. For example, if transport infrastructure is planned without reference to the electricity network capacity, then costs will be increased. A platform that enables sophisticated scenario-based modelling can help identify potential synergies and quantify business cases.

• Innovation Justification

  The Innovation

  PRIDE extends an existing infrastructure visualisation platform to include new datasets and analytical models in order to support a wider set of use cases. These support new governance structures to facilitate whole systems decision making. It also integrates the digital twin with National Grid's Virtual Energy System (VES)sharing information for loading, capacity and flexibility potential.

  Work Done to Date

  PRIDE builds on the RESO project which found data visibility was needed for cost-effective stakeholder engagement and suggested governance mechanisms for whole system planning and operation. PRIDE will integrate learning from related projects i.e. Equinox, Defender, Venice and EPIC. These provide relevant information on flexibility, energy efficiency impacts, vulnerable customers and future load profiles. RESO brings this together to support selected use cases where gaps have been identified in the existing visualisation and modelling capabilities.

  Economic and Sustainability Value 

  The RESO project identified potential benefits of £721m across the West Midlands over 30 years and a range of benefits including:

  • Smart local energy systems create more local opportunities to help balance the grid, ensuring value is captured and distributed at a local level. This would help to lower bills, create jobs, and generate local economic benefits and ensure vulnerable consumers are not left behind during the energy transition.
  • Savings through targeted technology deployment, identifying what technology is needed and where Data led local planning: development of co-ordinated energy and local planning
  •  Infrastructure investment: targeting investment to where it is needed most
  • Economic development: creating and capturing local value from a smarter energy system
  • Designing the market: to create local opportunities in demand-side response and flexibility services 

  Justification of Funding

  This project involved a large number of partners with the majority of the benefits accruing to local authorities rather than the Distribution Network Operator, therefore it is not appropriate to fund this as BAU

• Key Outputs

  As this was a Discovery Phase project, the outputs of the project feed into the Alpha phase rather than creating wider impacts and benefits. The greatest impacts and benefits are expected to occur following a Beta phase if the project is successful at gaining approval for that stage.