We are delighted to announce that ElectraLink has succeeded in its bid to undertake a study commissioned by the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) as part of the Government’s £1bn Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) and Automatic Asset Registration (AAR) project. The study from September 2022 to January 2023 will investigate the feasibility and opportunities for an automated, UK-wide low carbon technology (LCT) register.
In partnership with web developers at Xanda and researchers at the University of Birmingham, ElectraLink has launched the Flexibility Asset Information Register project (project FAIR) to support BEIS’s AAR project. FAIR will develop a proof-of-concept solution to replace the dispersed, uncoordinated manual registration process of small-scale demand, generation and storage energy assets, also known as LCTs. The solution comprises a centralised register that automatically acquires data to give a whole system view of LCT permeation and opportunities for optimisation to achieve the NZIP targets. LCTs include electric vehicles and chargers, solar panels, heat pumps and battery storage.
Phase one of Project FAIR involves a BEIS-funded data discovery and feasibility study to understand what data is available then decide what is most appropriate for a country- and market-wide automated LCT register. The next steps will identify how best to move from the current fragmented state of data collection to automated, digitalised registration. At least nine databases have already been identified as promising contributors to the register. With this information, Project FAIR will develop a technical proof of concept solution. The study runs until January 2023 when ElectraLink and BEIS will publicly release the study’s outcomes and results.
ElectraLink’s Chief Data Officer, Paul Linnane, said: “We are incredibly eager to roll up our virtual sleeves and start digging into Project FAIR. We will include a detailed market scan and assessment of data sources, including our own, and will consider how data is best assimilated and centralised into a central source of truth.
“By improving visibility and potential optimisation of LCTs, this will allow the electricity network operators to overcome constraints in both planning and operational timescales.
“Ultimately, this data-driven visibility will support the energy transition and continue to find ways to lower the cost of running electricity networks in the UK. Collaborative efforts like this are fundamental to ElectraLink’s purpose as a central hub that enables data innovation in the energy market.”
A key task in Project FAIR is assessing data sensitivities and how these can be addressed using ElectraLink’s experience as the energy market’s central data transfer network operator and ensuring robust data governance and security.
A proof of concept from the study will be subject to further negotiations with the Government, and ElectraLink will deliver a solution in 2024 if successful in the next phases of the bid process.
For further information on Project FAIR and other innovation activities at ElectraLink, please contact [email protected].