Following the publication of the five RIIO-3 Innovation Challenges, we are welcoming early engagement from innovators with ideas or solutions that could help address them.
The innovation delivery groups will shape and prioritise activity and opportunities under each challenge over the coming months. However, innovators can begin engaging now where they have ideas or solutions that align with the published challenges (and the innovation priorities identified).
The Energy Innovation Centre (EIC) team has over 200 years of collective industry experience and can provide initial feedback on ideas, support proposition development, help assess alignment with the challenges, signpost to relevant funding routes and facilitate engagement with energy networks where appropriate. Where appropriate, the EIC will liaise with Ofgem, UKRI and relevant stakeholders to ensure effective industry coordination.
Please complete the SIF Challenge Triage Form at the bottom of this page. If you need any help, please contact us.
Enable instant, plug and play connections of domestic energy devices and appliances by 2032
Overview
This challenge will enable households to instantly install and connect any low carbon technology, including demand, storage and generation assets, and to disconnect redundant assets, without requiring prior network approval.
At present this would cover solar photovoltaic (PV), hardwired electric vehicle (EV) chargers and vehicle-to-grid (V2G) connection points, heat pumps (including hybrid heat pumps), and stationary batteries and disconnection and removal of conventional gas appliances.
But the challenge should also include emerging technologies, such as plug-in systems for microgeneration and storage.
At present, authorisation to connect such devices is governed by energy networks. The potential for network-related delays to connection (if reinforcement is necessary) risks undermining public confidence in low-carbon options. Conversely, removing networks from the critical path of household technology uptake has the potential to significantly increase customer satisfaction, while the resulting acceleration in asset deployment will unlock critical flexibility services to support wider system operation.
Achieving this challenge could involve both network-side and customer-side developments. On the network side, proactive predictive analytics for demand and generation coupled with new engineering processes for both proactive and responsive works would ensure households have timely access to connection capacity at the point when they decide to install assets. On the demand side coordination of customer device operation is crucial, with a ‘flexibility by design’ presumption that device operation will be managed in the interests of the wider system with opt-out by exception. At a local scale this could be used to ensure networks operate within safe limits while maximising services to households.
At wider scales, coordinated operation could make a tangible contribution to system balancing, constraint resolution and restoration. New business models for domestic connections could reveal customers’ interest in differentiated levels of service. Solutions developed for domestic customers will likely also be applicable to small
non-domestic customers with similar needs, broadening the value of the innovation. Beyond this, development of compelling and desirable customer experiences and seamless ways for customers to interact with the energy system will help build trust and desire to engage further with decarbonisation pathways.
Potential Prize
- Accelerated rollout of low carbon technologies, delivering customer benefits
- Cost reductions realised for all consumers through the management of in-home energy appliances to limit network impact
- Automation and digitalisation delivering wider economic and customer experience benefits
- Unlocking domestic decarbonisation and growing the flexibility deployed in the system
Challenge Ambition
- Plug and Play Connections: No permission should be needed before appliances are installed, and the time delay between appliances requesting energy import/export and granting of authorisation to operate (if applicable) should be below 10 seconds
- Delivery Year: Proactive measures in train for RIIO-ED3 [9] will prepare for this challenge to be delivered in 2032, close to the end of the price control period. Delivery sooner than this would be challenging, due to the need for device manufacturers to update their products to align with new standards.
Necessary Partnerships
- Networks: Electricity and gas distribution network/system operators will undertake both proactive measures to ready their networks for new technology uptake, and the operational management of installed devices
- Domestic Energy Device Manufacturers: To collaborate and work with manufacturers of smart devices and white goods on standards and controls for ensuring safe network operation
- Energy Providers: As owners of the customer relationship, energy suppliers, energy service companies, flexibility service providers and load controllers will create bundled propositions to interface to networks’ needs.
Innovation Opportunities
- Customer designed and shaped connection and disconnection regime
- AI predictions of domestic energy device uptake and resulting loads
- New business models integrating decarbonisation and flex assets into the customer
proposition - Regulatory review of customer protections and rights
- Removal of constraints on low-carbon technology connection
- Interoperable device management to comply with capacity constraints
- Vector-switching hybrid heating systems to enable load growth and meet customer needs
- Updates to connection codes to support enhanced access.
Case Study: Residential Batteries for Zero Upfront Cost
The Battery PowrPlan from Wondrwall allows households to obtain a high-capacity domestic battery for zero upfront cost, requiring only a fixed monthly fee over the course of a 10-year Energy Storage Agreement.
Using the battery for grid services minimises the cost for the household, and Wondrwall’s AI home energy management platform integrates with heat pumps, solar PV, EV chargers and other domestic energy devices.
Coordinated household-level energy management across multiple appliances could allow for new demands to be accommodated seamlessly within existing network limits, while the innovative commercial arrangements will drive uptake beyond the limits of those able to pay full costs upfront.