Our Innovation Projects

NIE Networks is currently trialling innovation projects throughout Northern Ireland. These projects are not Research and Design but rather they are the integration of new technologies and techniques trialled elsewhere into Business as Usual (BaU) here in Northern Ireland. If successful these projects will facilitate the electrification of heat and transport by providing a lower cost alternative to conventional network reinforcement, using both smart and customer based solutions.

Project Selection

Understand how we selected our RP6 innovation projects

LV ANM

The Low Voltage Active Network Management (LV ANM) project will investigate how meshing the network will increase headroom for LCTs.

DRVC

By dynamically reducing network voltage the Demand Reduction through Voltage Conservation (DRVC) project will seek to manage network constraints.

FESS

The Facilitation of Energy Storage Services (FESS) will seek to identify and remove any barriers that exist to customers deploying energy storage devices.

FLEX

The FLEX project will establish a DSO Flexibility market in Northern Ireland

EV Intelligent Charging

Working with drivers to shift when they charge their electric vehicles to their support local networks

SAM

Using real time thermal rating technology the Smart Asset Monitoring (SAM) project will attempt to increase network headroom.

STATCOM

This project will actively manage network voltage through the installation of a STATCOM on an 11kV circuit.

Nodal Controller

By coordinating the reactive power from downstream resources, the Nodal Controller will provide reactive power support to the system.