Innovation Funding Incentive

Innovation Funding Incentive (IFI) is a regulatory initiative which provides funding to encourage Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to engage in development and deployment of new technologies. We have had many successes over the last few years.

A notable achievement this year was to have one of our IFI projects recognised by the UK industry as one of the best innovation projects. With our industry partners we developed a system that helps us to make use of unused capacity in our networks. The Dynamic Thermal Rating project collected the IET innovation award for 2010 in the category of Power and Energy.

Our projects are aligned to our business goals and many are targeted at dealing with current issues on our networks. For example we used IFI to develop and trial the LV fault locator which is now part of operational practice, delivering improved fault repair times.

Our development activities also extend to transmission where, for example, we are trialling new technology which will help to maximise the utilisation of the transmission system in an environment of ever more intermittent wind generation and large high voltage direct current (HVDC) interconnections.

We believe the IFI, and other innovation incentives such as the Low Carbon Network Fund (LCNF), present the business with significant opportunities to gain practical knowledge and experience of new technologies. This will play a part in preparing for the future challenges in the changing energy market.

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