Thursday 14 October 2021

New £2m project to unlock 70GW of electricity for EVs and heat pumps by 2028

UK Power Networks has announced its new Envision project that could unlock energy capacity equivalent to 1,371 new rapid electric vehicle (EV) chargers by 2028.

The £2 million machine-learning project simulates how power flows through its networks across London, the South and South-East of England.

It has stated that the tool will provide more visibility in tracking its network and allow more low carbon technologies such as heat pumps and EV chargers to connect.

In addition, the tool will mean engineers need to physically upgrade the network far less to release capacity – with projected savings of £4 million in the next five years, as well as 70GW of electricity capacity freed up by 2028.

UK Power Networks currently has 150,000 EVs and 20,000 heat pumps attached to its network but estimates this will rise to 2.6 million EVs and 712,000 heat pumps by 2030. Its Envision project will therefore become vital in unlocking energy capacity for this growth without having to impact the network physically.

Ian Cameron, Head of Customer Services at UK Power Networks, said: “Our customers rightly expect us to do everything we can to make the switch to electric cars and low carbon heating as affordable as possible.

“Through Envision, we’re thinking outside the box and re-imagining traditional ways of working, to make it happen.”