NGET turns to universities to boost grid innovation

The UK has some of the best universities in the world, so it’s only right that National Grid Electricity Transmission is expanding its academic innovation network to leverage that talent. It’s forming partnerships with 10 UK universities that will help support the development of technologies and methods that could improve our grid. 

The partnerships cover the five-year RIIO-T3 price control period from 2026 to 2031 and will bring university research teams into NGET’s innovation portfolio. The plan is to turn research, which universities are often good at, into practical solutions for the technical, operational and system-wide challenges involved in expanding and operating the transmission network.

The universities involved are the University of Bath, University of Birmingham, Cardiff University, University of Edinburgh, University of Exeter, University of Liverpool, University of Manchester, University of Southampton, University of Strathclyde and University of Warwick.

The work will focus on three broad areas: power electronics, digital transformation and energy system decarbonisation.

The partnership couldn’t come at a more important time, as RIIO-T3 is also the period in which the grid will receive a massive boost in investment. In fact, NGET estimates that around £31 billion of new investment will be spent between 2026 and 2031, supporting the connection of 35 GW of new generation and storage and 19 GVA of demand.

Let’s not forget this isn’t all-new though. In fact, in March 2022, NGET signed similar innovation partnerships with six UK universities, all of which are returning for this new round. That delivered some useful innovations for the grid too – with the University of Manchester working with NGET to develop an SF6-free retrofill solution for the electricity network.

The proof will ultimately be in the pudding. There are some great innovations that could come out of the partnerships. Take power electronics as an example, they could support greater controllability and stability across a more heavily loaded network. Digital tools could improve planning assumptions, asset monitoring and operational visibility. Lower-emission technologies could reduce the need for full asset replacement where existing equipment can be safely adapted or retrofitted.

Those are all useful outcomes, but only if they survive the difficult middle ground between laboratory work and network deployment. Transmission innovation often fails not because the idea is weak, but because it is not translated into procurement specifications, testing regimes, asset policies, operational procedures and evidence that engineers can actually rely on.

NGET said academic partners will work alongside its innovation engineers and project teams to help develop solutions that can actually be deployed and embed new approaches into business-as-usual delivery.

Neil McClymont, Head of Innovation at National Grid Electricity Transmission, said working with universities was “a vital part” of turning new ideas into real-world network solutions.

He said the expanded academic network would allow NGET to draw on a wider pool of expertise and accelerate technologies and approaches that help keep the network “safe, resilient and affordable for the long term”.