Energy Systems Catapult is collaborating with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) on phase two of their Demand Diversification Service (DDS) project for Load Managed Areas (LMAs).

This innovative trial aims to address the challenges posed by the 2025 switch-off of the Radio Teleswitch Service (RTS), which currently supports demand diversity in load managed areas through the control of storage heating. The project is testing whether market-based flexibility services can be used to maintain or improve demand diversity post RTS switch-off, while delivering consumer and network benefits.

Using Energy Systems Catapult’s Living Lab and the WESA (Whole Energy Systems Accelerator) platform (in partnership with PNDC), we are testing two new flexibility approaches: allocated capacity and dynamic congestion response. We are:

• Signalling up to 200 homes to flex the operation of EV chargers, heat pumps, and storage heaters.
• Simulating virtual networks to analyse how flexible assets can balance demand across different network conditions.
• Delivering insights into flexibility’s ability to replace RTS services while ensuring network and consumer outcomes are achieved.

The Living Lab is partnering with Connected Response to deliver storage heating control, and with Homely to deliver control of the heat pumps.

The DDS project has the potential to redefine how distribution networks manage demand diversity. Outcomes include:

• Demonstrating whether market-based flexibility can mitigate RTS challenges and support LMA retirement.
• Providing scalable business models for flexibility service providers.
• Supporting a seamless transition to LCTs for consumers while maintaining energy affordability and reliability.

The results of this trial will inform SSEN’s approach to integrating new flexibility services into their Business as Usual (BaU) operations. Lessons learned will guide future flexibility initiatives, ensuring robust, consumer-friendly solutions for demand management across UK networks.

Dozens of homes across the UK took part in an electric heating study to explore how UK Power Networks could unlock more capacity for low-carbon heating. 

Real-world consumer behaviour from UK Power Networks’ Neighbourhood Green project was analysed to understand the exact amount of electricity capacity required to keep residents feeling comfortable, during the winter period across 2022/23. The trial provided valuable data on how homeowners with different types of low carbon heating like heat pumps, underfloor heating or panel heaters, were using their systems to keep warm.   

The project used WESA to monitor energy use in homes with these technologies, and digitally mapped the households onto simulated networks. Engineers compared real-life data from around 60 houses with a model of a ‘one in 20’ freezing winter, where demand for electricity would be unusually high. 

A key finding was that in an urban situation, with only 30% of homes having heat pumps, local distribution transformers may be overloaded.  This means that planning the distribution network for heat demand will need to evolve.

This insight will help UK Power Networks plan its interventions efficiently to secure ‘room’ on the network for more heat pumps in future. 

UK Power Networks is planning £4.6 billion investment between 2023 and 2028. The company’s investment proposal covers a range of grid upgrades to make sure people can use low carbon technologies where and when they need, so nobody gets left behind in the transition to Net Zero. 

Ian Cameron, head of customer services and innovation at UK Power Networks, said: 

“It’s our job to make sure that our customers are able to connect low carbon heating easily and quickly, whenever they choose to do so. Neighbourhood Green is helping us gain valuable insight so we can plan ahead to make sure they have that choice.” 

Thermal storage manufacturer Sunamp is to receive £9.25 million to develop and trial its advanced thermal storage system in UK Living Lab homes. Sunamp will extend their existing heat battery to provide increased storage duration and capacity and pair it with household energy systems to tackle periods of low renewables generation on the grid.

The funding is awarded through the Longer Duration Energy Storage Demonstration programme, part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero of which provides funding for low-carbon technologies and systems.

A heat pump will charge renewable heat into large capacity time-shifting thermal storage, delivering space heating and hot water on demand. The bulk of input electrical energy is from offsite wind energy. Customers will have the option of part ownership of a wind farm through Ripple Energy. The proposed system uses smart control logic from myenergi and a significantly large thermal storage from Sunamp to overcome lulls in wind energy supply.

In addition, the Living Lab now connects to our new Whole Energy Systems Accelerator, allowing us to test the benefits that Sunamp’s heat battery technology brings to the wider electricity network, utilising real-time data on real world household behaviour.

Our new Whole Energy Systems Accelerator will be used to transmit predicted network loading based on Living Lab demand to myenergi, so that they can schedule the storage behaviour of Sunamp’s Extend system. At the same time, we will monitor the real time consumption of consumers with the Extend system, consumers with standard heat pumps but no storage and consumers with no low carbon technologies.  We will share this with our partners PNDC who will simulate the loading on a network with significant uptake of the Extend system.  This will allow us to analyse the benefits that Sunamp’s heat battery technology brings to the wider electricity network when used with real world behaviours.