In this piece, Andy Berry, CEO of VertiGIS, examines the pressing need to modernise the UK’s energy infrastructure amid rising costs and years of underinvestment. He highlights the role of advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in upgrading outdated grids, supporting green energy goals and ensuring future resilience. Berry also discusses how the new Great British Energy initiative could help address these challenges.
The last few years have been challenging for energy providers. Geopolitical tension has led to rising energy costs at the source, and decades of underinvestment have led to ageing and vulnerable infrastructure. This impacts both energy companies through the cost needed for constant repairs, and consumers through increasing bills and interrupted service. Energy bills have been one of the focus points in discussions around the cost-of-living crisis, with most people affected by rising energy prices.
It’s not surprising that the new government is tackling this issue as a priority. As Energy Secretary Ed Miliband discusses in an article with The Guardian, the main piece of legislation is a plan for a new, national energy company, Great British Energy.
Problems of privatisation
There are many reasons why this move should be applauded. Decades of privatisation have taken their toll on the UK’s energy infrastructure. The privatisation of energy companies does little to incentivise investment in updating the actual infrastructure, until it ceases to work completely. This is usually too late for customers who then face a complete outage or a disrupted service in their homes.
This issue was perfectly encapsulated in the water utilities earlier this year when regulatory body Ofwat permitted water companies to increase customer bills by an average of 21% over the next five years. The water companies advocated for the rise of prices to allow for greater investment in infrastructure, and this situation is mirrored in the energy sector. When private companies are in charge of utilities, investing in upgrading infrastructure often falls by the wayside in favour of driving shareholder profits.
Green energy targets
The problem of ageing infrastructure doesn’t just impact the reliability of the energy grid. It also acts as a brake on the UK’s progress towards achieving its green energy goals. While the government is good at setting green energy targets, as well as attracting investment for these projects, a lot of these initiatives are now becoming stuck in limbo for anything up to 15 years because of this lack of investment.
This is entirely due to the fact that the infrastructure is not set up for renewables and is not being modernised. In the past, the grid needed fewer, but larger connections for power plants, as this was the main way in which energy was generated. However, when it comes to renewables, many smaller connections are needed, and the lack of investment means that this support for solar, wind, and hydroelectric projects is very limited.
Upgrading the grid with GIS
While it is obvious that the grid is in dire need of an upgrade, the size of the task cannot be overstated. Each energy utilities provider is responsible for millions of assets, from power stations to storage facilities, and this includes a country-wide network of above and below-ground power lines. Managing this volume of individual assets is incredibly complicated, and any mistake can lead to outages affecting customers and businesses.
Thankfully, GIS are an essential tool in helping energy companies to visualise, trace, and maintain all assets within their entire network. Understanding the spatial relationship of all these assets is vital to document and manage maintenance when it comes to upgrading outdated infrastructure.
Modern GIS apps can help energy organisations prioritise what needs to be replaced first, based on historical evidence and predictive analytics. These apps can support the coordination of multiple organisations throughout the planning, design, and construction phases of these projects. GIS apps can also help future-proof infrastructure against becoming outdated, as they can be used to help plan its retirement.
Advancements in GIS are also making the complicated process of modernisation easier. In the past, GIS systems required large, heavy desktop workstations that are increasingly expensive to deploy and maintain. Now, web and mobile-ready GIS apps that run on a software-as-a-service model and don’t require significant hardware investments are available, lowering total cost of ownership for energy organisations, and making it easier and cheaper to have full asset visibility within a network in the hands of both field and back-office workers. These modern GIS solutions also take advantage of cloud infrastructure and all the benefits that technology brings, such as flexibility, customisation, and cost-effectiveness.
Solving the modernisation problem
The issue of outdated energy infrastructure is a global one, however each country has its own unique pressures when it comes to trying to solve the problem. In the UK, reinvestment in upgrading utilities networks like the power grid is one of the main drivers behind fixing these problems. While it remains to be seen how effective the GB Energy initiative will be, on paper it sounds like a step in the right direction.
Once energy organisations start to bring their infrastructure in line with modern standards, GIS technology will allow them to be primed to deliver infrastructure improvements quickly and effectively that will have a positive impact on energy delivery and resilience.
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