31. July 2025
The core benefit of digitising the low voltage grid is to put the network operator ‘in the driving seat’ ahead of the energy transition i.e. enabling them to stay in control. More specifically the benefits are:
- Find where points of congestion are, so you know where to focus your resources
- Monitor trends, to be able to act before something a problem develops
- Plan more accurately so as to be able to optimise the allocation of resources
- Feed models with more accurate data to enable the connection of more low carbon technologies.
Read more in our latest article.
We often talk about the energy transition turning the electricity grid ‘on its head’. That doesn’t mean we’re going to have high voltage distribution grids and low voltage transmission grids. It means we are going to have electricity production and consumption both happening on the distribution grid, in fact we can reasonably expect the bulk of energy production to happen on the distribution grid. This brings with it an extremely high degree of variability and much more challenging predictability. This is driving the need for transparency in the low voltage grid as without knowing how much and in what direction the electricity is flowing one can’t manage or control the grid. The benefits we at SMIGHT see our customers deriving from deploying our solution in the LV networks are:
- Identifying Critical Points
The impacts of the energy transition are not evenly distributed across any given distribution network. They present themselves at a relatively small number of points in the form of high loads and voltage level violations. For a DSO to be able to handle this it first needs to know where this is happening, when, and to what extent. With this information DSOs can better prioritize their work i.e. where to reinforce the network, and where and when to replace ailing assets. Then also looking ahead a bit also where to procure flexibility or implement load management mechanisms.
- Monitor Trends
Having identified where it is already critical within the network the DSOs focus then turns to the question of: where will it become critical in the future? This is where the DSO can use the data collected to predict where in the grid they can expect to see issues in the future.
- Plan more accurately
Planning network expansion used to be an easy task as the behaviour of households was predictable and therefore there were proven load profiles and models. DSOs now find themselves operating in a far more dynamic environment for example: how many of these houses will have EVs, how quickly will they get EVs, how often will they charge them, when will they charge them, when will people switch out old gas boilers for heat pumps, how many houses will install solar panels, will they operate battery storage, and the list goes on. With real world measurements taken out in the LV networks of today DSOs can develop more representative load profiles and plan more accurately which in the long run saves money as it avoids both the over and under building of network infrastructure.
- Feed models with more accurate data
DSOs use models/simulations/digital twins to help them answer questions such as ‘Can I connect this customer?’, ‘Where will it become critical in my network?’, ‘What happens if I change X in my grid?’ and so on. The accuracy, and therefore the usefulness, of the answers to these questions depends on the quality of the input data. The more real-world measurements one can feed into these models the more accurate they become. Also using a continual refinement process one can use real-world measurements to validate the predictions that models make and refine the parameters that influence these predictions.
Digitising low voltage grids is essential for DSOs to stay head of the energy transition. So, start today by piloting SMIGHT’s Grid2 solution for Low Voltage Grid Monitoring and Control.
