NIA SSEN 0053 Future Control Room

Key Activities

The project will consider the requirements, the highlevel architecture, operational need, and business impact of the future DNO control room. The outputs will also include an initial roadmap and architectural design for the future control room simulator. This project will also make recommendations for future development, further work required, use cases and user requirements for the future DNO control room to assess any challenges, opportunities and ongoing benefits to the electricity industry

Expected Outcomes

The project will provide new learning on the functionality and requirements of future control rooms, including: user requirements, technical architectures, data analysis and cyber security needs across a range of future operating scenarios. The project will also evaluate the potential use of new analytical techniques such as machine learning and artificial intelligence, to better maintain network resilience in a network which has widespread use of automation, Active Network Management (ANM) and flexibility, as well as a huge range of new monitoring/power flow data available from Low Carbon Technologies, smart meters and enhanced network monitoring. The project will also provide insights into the role of the DNO Control Engineer (HV and LV) when managing an increasingly complex network in the future. The project will also provide an overview of the research program required to develop a robust evidence base to allow for adoption of these new techniques into future control rooms.

Progress

Through a mixture of industry engagement and academic insight, this project has informed and accelerated the evolution of the user cases for the DNO control room. This has been achieved through capturing the requirements from a range of internal and external stakeholders for a future control room. The project is now closed and all reports are available through the project website.