The UK’s largest electricity distribution network is testing an online portal which will give local energy generators notice of planned work so they can coordinate their own maintenance.
UK Power Networks (UKPN) said the network vision project will minimise downtime and could save as much in carbon emissions as planting a forest 2.5 times the size of the city of London every year, and reduce costs by at least £1 million annually.
UKPN says the money the project will save by optimising how it plans and schedules work will benefit its customers.
By reducing downtime the project will help to maximise the potential for renewable energy to feed into local electricity networks and could enable an extra 1,080 MWh of renewable generation per year, saving 344 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
This will have the equivalent effect of planting 172,000 trees (a forest 2.5 times the size of the city of London) every year.
The project will pool information from different sources to give network operators a complete picture of what is happening across the network.
Ian Cameron, head of innovation at UK Power Networks, said: “We’ve listened to our customers and have come-up with a better, smarter way of doing business that we hope will benefit electricity networks, and their customers, across the country.
“This is building on some of the great work undertaken by other networks and we’re looking forward to using that learning to create a next generation tool.”