As the UK transitions towards the electrification of transport and heating, there must be an underlying strategy to power electric vehicles and heat pumps. We sat down with Paul Jewell, National Grid’s System Development Manager, and got his thoughts about the significant uptake of heat pumps and electric cars, and whether the electricity network will be able to cope with the wide range of low carbon technologies that are on the horizon and that will inevitably plug into the system.
The future of the UK energy grid
A very interesting interview, Mars & Kirsten. Living in (what was) the Western Power area it was good to see Paul Jewell projecting a very user-focussed approach to capacity/infrastructure etc, let’s hope that this becomes the norm. Although the focus of the discussion was on EVs & heat pumps, if/when you get him back again can you get him to discuss PV installations in a bit more detail. My experience of Western Power on PV installations to date has been quite positive, but others I know haven’t had quite as good an experience when they’ve looked to expand existing PV installations above the base 4kWp. If we’re to get to net zero, DNOs have got to become more pre-disposed to saying “yes” to end-users that want to install more PV generation capacity.
EXCELLENT discussion I guess I can rest assured that someone has a grip on this situation. I mean that we will have generation capacity equal to the future demand. EXCELLENT 3ph into new properties, so then what about existing properties?
When will National Grid take over Northern Powergrid? Please please take it over your abilitiesand attitude sound amazing. EXCELLENT work on Powergrid service station and ev charging solutions. I remember when the DNOs were huge obstacles to getting distributed generation connected. With NPG nothing seems to have changed they need NG to tell them that there service is not good enough as they are just profiting from G99 etc application charges.
G99 applications used to be free and took 45 working days, now they cost upto £650 + VAT and STILL take 45 days! I am just installing 12.6kWp and we have been restricted to 3.6kW export. On NPG website it states G99 application if you are going to export more than 3.6kW as though if you accept a derisory g100 export from the start you don’t need to apply? I have queried this with NPG but the people I spoke to just didn’t understand what I was asking. I am now asking for ev charger at same property £140 + VAT and on ev Web page it mentions fuse upgrade so I raised this. They want £450 to look at fuse upgrade, it is 80A at the moment and it is a big farmhouse so 100A would make more sense.
I have wondered if anyone is keeping track of G100 export limitation agreements as this is such a waste of energy and with all the fuel poverty is a scandle. They claim we can’t export more than 3.6kW because of risk of voltage going to high. I understood that G99 actually manages this with upper voltage limitation. I measured voltage in middle of day when demand likely to be low and so possible high voltage and it was 239 which I consider low.
They are correct about the voltage going high. I have had this same issue as the installer did not set up an export limit on my panels and they were producing 4.4 kWh. There are two more sizeable domestic installations up the road on the same transformer. I have had to set the export limit to 1 kWh. Even then we still get the odd trip.
70% of customers pay between GBP 3500 to GBP 6000 to upgrade a single phase domestic supply to 3 phase. This does not take into account the cost of rewiring and/or reconfiguring the house wiring and distribution boards. Many people are struggling to pay their electricity bill. Who has the money for work? Paul Jewell glossed over this.