Working together to make innovation happen
Wednesday 11th March 2026
LV investment remains reactive – triggered by faults, ageing assets, or new connections. Approaches developed for higher voltages address individual sites but break down across the much larger LV estate. DNOs have no consistent, scalable way to prioritise thousands of assets while weighing engineering need against fairness, cost, and community expectations.
Pathways to 2050 builds on SSEN’s innovation portfolio and brings strands together into one practical method for planning the LV network of the future. It gives DNOs a clear view of where, when, and how to act — while giving consumers a voice in those decisions.
Britain’s electricity networks were built for another era. With electrification surging, DNOs must modernise—fast, fairly, and at scale. Pathways to 2050 meets this challenge by creating a consumer-focused approach to LV planning, investment, and management.
No GB DNO has yet combined long-term LV investment planning, live data, and consumer engagement in a single operational process. Pathways delivers two complementary views:
The Pathways concept has matured through SSEN’s LV Strategy and early automated asset scoring prototypes. Beta will scale this into a national demonstrator with four components:
Together these tools can cut LV planning effort by more than half and deliver decisions weeks faster – bringing transparency and fairness to planning. There is no commercial tool that currently does this. Governance checkpoints, independent verification, and risk-control milestones will be used to ensure the demonstrator reaches maturity and proves deliverability. By the end of Beta, Pathways will progress from TRL 3 to TRL 8, with matching IRL and CRL readiness for BaU deployment.
Pathways to 2050 will deliver measurable financial, consumer, and societal benefits by transforming how DNOs plan, deliver, and communicate low-voltage (LV) reinforcement. The counterfactual assumes today’s reactive, site-by-site approach continues. Pathways introduces automated modelling, circuit standardisation, and early consumer engagement — reducing reinforcement costs, shortening delivery times, and improving service quality.
By 2050, Pathways to 2050 is expected to deliver £2.72 billion in cumulative financial savings and significant consumer and societal value through accelerated decarbonisation, reduced disruption, and improved service reliability.
All benefits will be validated during Beta and reported annually through Ofgem’s SIF CBA and Benefits Map templates. Together, these outcomes advance Ofgem’s ED3 priorities for efficiency, affordability, and consumer confidence in a digital, future-ready distribution network.
Pathways puts consumers at the centre of LV network expansion. Instead of reacting to faults or complaints, it uses consumer data, needs and preferences to plan reinforcements that are fair, transparent and aligned with how people and businesses decarbonise. This turns planning from an internal engineering process into a shared design exercise between DNOs, communities and consumers.
Consumers will benefit directly through faster and fairer access to network capacity. Automated scorecards and proactive planning will reduce reinforcement delays, enabling households to adopt LCTs when they choose. Proactive flexibility and monitoring will improve reliability and keep voltage steady during peaks.
Indirectly, consumers gain from more efficient delivery. Coordinating works into larger programmes uses resources and road space efficiently, cutting disruption and helping suppliers plan ahead. Local Pathways Plans will make the process transparent, reducing frustration and building trust.
At scale, these improvements will accelerate connections, support flexibility markets and reduce the overall cost of decarbonisation across the distribution system.
Each scorecard blends PSR and socio-economic data so vulnerable, rural and low-income consumers are prioritised alongside technical need. Insights from these datasets will highlight where affordability constraints, rural isolation or clustering of vulnerable consumers coincide with emerging LCT demand, ensuring that planning reflects lived experience as well as technical priorities. Engagement will use both digital dashboards and direct outreach—letters, events and phone support—for those less online.
Fairness is built into every stage of the framework. By combining technical data with social indicators, Pathways avoids concentrating investment only where uptake is highest. Local Pathways Plans will show when each community can expect reinforcement or flexibility services, so no group is left behind. Consumers can also signal future EV or heat pump plans, feeding this data into forecasts and creating a feedback loop where consumer intent informs network action.
Consumer engagement has already shaped the approach. Earlier innovation projects tested prototypes with planners, local authorities and community groups, whose feedback guided refinements. In this project, consumers will co-design and test Local Pathways Plan pilots — shaping how information is presented, feedback gathered and decisions refined
As a straight to Beta the Pathways project has an ambitious plan over the next three years.
Pathways builds on SSEN’s innovation portfolio. My Electric Avenue and SAVE proved the value of LV visibility; Low-Cost LV Monitoring and smart-meter data demonstrated scalability. DFES and VFES improved forecasting but lacked precision, while RESOP and VERIFY showed how technical and social factors interact.
These projects delivered insight in isolation. Pathways unites their learning into one coherent method – turning innovation into everyday business practice.
Total project cost: £11,039,669
Contribution: £1,103,993 (10%)
Funding: £9,935,676 is requested for this 39-month project.
Start Date – 02 Feb 2026
End Date – 30 Apr 2029
Kevin Stewart
