Two of Britain’s largest energy companies have each secured around £1 million in funding from Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF).

The SIF is a joint effort between the energy regulator and Innovate UK, which is committed to providing funding for projects that want to improve the electricity grid to speed up the clean energy transition. SSEN has been awarded £1 million for two of its projects, SeaChange and Nature4Networks.

The SeaChange project involves the development of a ‘Navigating Energy Transitions’ (NET) tool, which will help ports and others in the shipping sector plan their most viable routes to decarbonisation. The tool will also help SSEN see the predicted electrical load on UK ports – which could be up to 4TWh per year – to appropriately plan network and grid reinforcements. This new funding from the SIF will enable SeaChange to assess the potential growth of electricity consumption in the areas surrounding its target ports.

Gemma Ennis, project manager for SeaChange at SSEN, said: “The maritime sector is critical to trade and vital for emerging industries such as offshore renewable energy. Ports also provide lifeline services to island communities, and this project will bring everyone together to move us towards a net-zero future.”

SSEN’s second project, Nature4Networks, seeks to understand how nature-based solutions, such as increased hedgerow planting, can help protect network infrastructure from the increasingly extreme weather caused by climate change. These solutions not only increase the resilience of the network, but also increase sustainability and biodiversity in the areas in which they are installed.

The SIF funding will enable Nature4Networks to carry out advanced feasibility studies to understand how these solutions can be rolled out across Britain’s wider energy network, protecting infrastructure and nature.

Dot Revill, the project manager for Nature4Networks at SSEN, said: “SSEN is a leader in nature restoration in the areas we serve, and we want to ensure the continued resilience of our network in the face of a changing climate. What characterizes Nature4Networks is the way it can help us successfully combine both goals.”

“This new funding will allow us to take the principles we already established in the earlier phase and do the necessary work to plan how we can implement nature-based solutions at scale.”

SP Energy Networks celebrates its own SIF victory

Meanwhile, SP Energy Network has secured £914,130 in SIF funding to progress two of its projects. The Equiflex and LVOE projects aim to address the key challenges facing the electricity grid and help remove barriers in the flexibility services market.

The Equiflex project aims to promote equal access to flexibility services. Together with partner organizations from across Scotland, Equiflex will help stakeholders build a toolkit to advise stakeholders on how to seize opportunities and overcome barriers to entering the flexibility market.

The LVOE project aims to help balance the low-voltage electricity grid as more households switch to low-carbon technologies such as electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps. LVOE will investigate how the use of a new low-voltage device, called the LV Optimiser, can help balance the low-voltage network, eliminating the requirements for multi-million pound network upgrades.

Eddie Mulholland, director of processes and technology at SP Energy Networks, said: “The fact that we can take these projects forward, thanks to the Strategic Innovation Fund, will help us explore the feasibility of rolling out these projects, not just on our own network. but the wider electricity network.”