National Grid Projects Secure More Than £1 Million in Innovation Funding for Grid Modernization Efforts

Five National Grid-led projects have secured more than £1 million in funding through the next stage of Great Britain's Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF), supporting efforts to improve electricity transmission and distribution networks as demand continues to grow.

The funding, awarded through the U.K. energy regulator Ofgem's SIF program, will support projects focused on accelerating grid connections, improving network planning, enhancing asset monitoring and reliability, and supporting offshore grid development.

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) received funding for two Discovery phase projects, which focus on feasibility studies and evidence gathering.

One project, FLARE (Flexibility for Large Assets to Rapidly Energise), received £124,391 to examine whether large electricity users, including data centers, could connect to the grid more quickly through flexible demand arrangements. The project will assess how flexible power consumption could unlock additional network capacity and potentially reduce connection times.

A second Discovery phase initiative, PROMUPS (Probabilistic Methods for Uncertainty in Power Systems), received £138,674 to investigate probabilistic approaches to transmission planning. The project aims to improve how uncertainty in electricity demand and generation is incorporated into planning processes and network capacity allocation.

Two additional NGET projects advanced to the Alpha phase, which supports development and real-world testing of new technologies.

Project FoSMo (Foundation Source Model) received £355,985 to develop and test shared artificial intelligence models for asset monitoring across transmission and distribution networks. The project includes collaboration among multiple network operators and is intended to improve fault detection, reliability, and operational efficiency through shared data and AI applications.

Project AMPERES (Automating Marine Plant Ecosystem Restoration for Energy Supply) secured £456,027 to test automated and robotic methods for restoring seagrass meadows. The initiative is designed to support environmental requirements associated with the expansion of offshore electricity infrastructure.

National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) also received £147,000 in Discovery phase funding for Project Matchmaker, which will explore the development of a digital platform connecting renewable energy developers with local community energy groups.

The project, being developed with Regen and TPZ Impact, aims to bring together developers of commercial wind, solar and battery storage projects with community energy organizations. According to NGED, the platform could help accelerate project development by combining developers' technical expertise with local knowledge and potential community investment.

National Grid said the projects are part of its broader innovation strategy focused on addressing increasing electricity demand, integrating renewable generation, and delivering new infrastructure more efficiently.

The Strategic Innovation Fund is funded by Ofgem and managed in partnership with Innovate UK.