eSmart Networks are a Lloyds registered ‘Independent Connection Provider’ who design and construct grid connections for EV, Renewable Energy and Commercial Connections from Low Voltage up to and including 132kV.
We are the UK experts in all things Grid – our mission is to get your project connected faster than anyone else.
As part of the Governments drive to ‘Build Back Better’, they have encouraged Ofgem to allow the DNOs to reinforce their networks where it will enable low carbon projects to go ahead, that otherwise would not due to the cost of the reinforcement.
The current regulations mean that reinforcement costs to enable a customer connection are passed on to that customer using a cost apportionment formula based on the new capacity connected and the customer’s required load.
An EV Network Operator wants to connect a two High Powered 150kW DC chargers to an existing substation, however the existing substation has a 315kVA transformer that needs to be upgraded to 1MVA with associated HV cabling upgrade.
If the transformer and cable upgrade will cost £100k, the EV Network Operator may be required to pay a £50k contribution in addition to the connection costs making the project unviable.
Under the Green Recovery Scheme announced by the ENA last week, Ofgem will allow the GB DNOs (Northern Ireland is under a different regulatory regime) to spend up to £300m on these types of projects, paying the customer element of the reinforcement.
In the example above, the 150kW charging project may get selected and therefore move ahead.
The main points of the scheme:
The process is as follows:
There is a detailed list of criteria for how the projects are assessed. We have already supported our customers in the evaluation of projects against the criteria to prioritise those that will score highly in the process.
Each application is effectively a business case. We are writing these business cases for our customers to maximize the opportunity to get funding. This includes:
We expect this scheme to be oversubscribed and see our job as getting the maximum for our customers, which will help deliver the green infrastructure revolution.
Please get in touch with us today by emailing enquiries@esmartnetworks.co.uk for more information or for help to maximize this opportunity and get more of your low carbon technology projects successfully built.
eSmart Networks Business Development Manager, Guy Morrison explores the future of the energy company and how vehicle manufacturers could redefine this area in the future.
In recent years we have seen traditional oil majors pivoting and reinventing themselves as energy companies. If these companies are really going to turn their backs on oil reserves in favour of renewable energy, as hinted at recently by BP and with the CEO of Shell stating that climate change still needs urgent action, then it is overdue but welcome news for the environment. It makes perfect sense too that those brands associated with fuelling internal combustion engine vehicles should be preparing to fuel the next generation of transport technology by generating and selling electricity rather than extracting and refining oil.
This next generation of road vehicles – manufactured and supplied by those other companies that are expanding into energy services, the vehicle OEMs, rely on batteries, and that fact creates opportunities for their energy products to be a two-way or bi-directional street.
While petrol prices may slowly rise and fall at the pump in response to fluctuating crude oil prices, people do not syphon their tanks to supply their neighbours or to trade back to their supplier. This concept, however, is entirely possible in the far more dynamic electricity market by utilising the substantial battery capacity in electric vehicles using Vehicle to Grid (V2G) technology.
The aggregation of those batteries in what’s known as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP) is one of the things tempting the vehicle manufacturers into energy services, with Tesla the latest to be granted a licence and no doubt others will follow suit. It doesn’t take long, tapping out the figures for a few possible scenarios on a calculator, before the enormous potential becomes apparent.
Cars parked not just at home but at new and used dealerships and storage depots, ports, airports and other transport hubs, and commercial and public sector fleets could all represent significant cost-saving and revenue opportunities and help to flatten the generation and demand peaks across the electricity network.
As the cost of this technology is reduced and more vehicles are equipped for discharging their batteries into the grid, the only thing that many sites will require is a substantial peak energy load or a large export connection to start exploiting these temporarily static battery assets.
The sheer number of electric vehicles that are predicted in the coming years means any company, managing a reasonable percentage of them, could quickly become a major player in the energy market.
