Two SSEN Distribution innovation projects which will support decarbonisation in two critical sectors - healthcare and food production - have between them been granted almost £280,000 in innovation funding.
The FORTRESS project
The FORTRESS' project - standing for "flexibility and optimisation for resilience in energy systems" - exists to help accelerate decarbonisation of important sites like hospitals and water treatment plants. These use a lot of power, but their demand has not been visible to Distribution Network Operators because they have generated their own power on-site, usually through the burning of fossil fuels. As they move away from these high-carbon fuels, demand on local grids will increase.
The £146,000 in Discovery funding that's been awarded will allow the FORTRESS project team to work with partners at NHS Tayside as a case study to better understand the precise nature of hospitals' electricity use, from ensuring critical care capability to the heating of buildings. This work will advance progress towards the decarbonisation of hospitals, a move which will require a significant increase in capacity across all Distribution networks. This project will help inform studies into how best to decarbonise these - and other - sites.
The FARM project
The FARM' project - standing for "future agricultural resilience mapping" - will understand the future energy requirements and means of decarbonising the domestic farming industry. On-farm food production accounts for more than two-thirds of the UK's land use. The sector is currently still largely dependent on fossil fuels and is also vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
The £133,000 in Discovery funding that's been awarded to the FARM project team will support its investigations into the impact of food production on the electricity distribution system, to work out where reinforcement is needed. A data-driven tool to inform network planning will also be devised. Through this work, FARM will address the gap between the energy demands for food production and future network planning.
The FORTRESS and FARM projects have both been successful at the Strategic Innovation Fund's Discovery' phase. The Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund is delivered in partnership with Innovate UK.
Gemma Ennis, FORTRESS Project Delivery Manager at SSEN Distribution, says:
"This innovation funding will allow us to do important work to help decarbonise society, which will be for the benefit of all of us. Hospitals are at the centres of communities we serve, and it's a priority for us to work with health authorities to help them decarbonise.
"The work we'll now be able to do will give us an invaluable understanding of hospitals' energy needs, which in turn will help our planning of the most-efficient local electricity networks.
"I'd like to thank our partners at Ricardo and NHS Tayside for their support with this project".
Cori Critchlow-Watton, FARM Project Delivery Manager at SSEN Distribution, says:
"Food production is a cornerstone of our vital agricultural sector. Like all other industries, it's facing the challenges and opportunities that come with decarbonisation. This means that clean electricity will replace fossil fuels, and as a network operator covering large, rural swathes of the north of Scotland and central southern England, we've a responsibility to ensure local networks can support this necessary transition.
"The funding awarded to FARM will ensure important work can go ahead to understand how the food production sector will develop in the years to come, and the implications this will have for the electricity system.
"I'd like to thank our partners the James Hutton Institute, SAOS, and the Energy Systems Catapult for their hard work and commitment which has resulted in the securing of this funding."
You can read more about SSEN Distribution's commitment to innovation here
