Trading Connections is a project designed to analyse connection queues and create a dynamic, publicly accessible tool that visualizes demand, capacity and queue data across all substations within the three UK Power Networks regions. This tool will be made available through the UK Power Networks Open Data Portal and the Connections Portal.
What is the project about?
When a customer receives a connection quote, they join the end of the connections queue. Across the UK, this queue now exceeds 880GW, meaning many new customers face waits of more than 10 years before their connection can be delivered. This challenge is not unique to the UK and is being experienced by electricity networks around the world.
Trading Connections aims to improve visibility of connection queues by developing a public-access tool that visualises demand capacity and pipeline data, while providing automated indicative capacity assessments for every substation across the three UK Power Networks licence areas. The tool will be made available through the UK Power Networks Connections Portal.
By giving customers greater visibility of available network capacity, the tool is expected to encourage projects to locate in areas where capacity already exists and reduce speculative connection applications. This should help reduce pressure on connection queues and support a more efficient connections process.
How we’re doing it
The project has developed a visualisation tool to help customers plan and manage their connection applications more effectively. Customer engagement has played a key role in shaping the solution, ensuring its design and functionality reflect user needs and requirements.
Following this engagement, EA Technology developed the visualisation tool using feedback gathered from customers and stakeholders. The final stage of the project will involve data integration and testing before the tool is launched through the UK Power Networks Connections Portal.
What makes it innovative
The project is innovative because it combines automated indicative capacity assessments with demand capacity visualisation in a single tool, providing customers with clearer insights to support connection planning. This approach has not previously been implemented anywhere in Great Britain, making it a novel way of helping customers identify suitable connection opportunities and navigate the connections process more effectively.
What we’re learning
Customer engagement activities have provided valuable insight into the challenges customers face when applying for connections. These discussions have helped identify the types of information customers need, as well as the most effective ways to present it so that complex network data is both accessible and useful. Using this feedback, the project is developing a visualisation tool that gives customers greater visibility of network capacity and connection queues, helping them make more informed connection decisions.
The development phase has also improved our understanding of the availability, quality and suitability of data held across the business for visualising network demand and connection pipeline information.
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