National Grid secures over £1 million in innovation funding to accelerate network transformation

Five National Grid-led projects developing electricity transmission and distribution network innovations will continue their work after securing over £1 million from the next stage of Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) programme.

With electricity demand rising – driven in part by the growth of data centres and wider electrification – the projects aim to help the network adapt more quickly and efficiently, while maintaining reliability and keeping costs down for consumers.

The projects span both the Discovery and Alpha phases of the SIF programme, which supports the development and testing of new technologies and approaches to help transform Great Britain’s energy networks.

National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET) has been awarded funding for two Discovery phase projects, which focus on early-stage feasibility and evidence development. This includes £124,391 for a project exploring how large electricity users – including data centres – could connect to the grid faster through flexible demand arrangements, and £138,674 for a second project investigating new probabilistic approaches to network planning, helping to improve how network capacity is allocated and support more efficient connections.

Two further projects – Project FoSMo and Project AMPERES – have secured funding for the Alpha phase, which supports real-world testing and development of innovative solutions. Project FoSMo has been awarded £355,985 to develop and test shared artificial intelligence models for asset monitoring, while Project AMPERES has been awarded £456,027 to trial automated methods for large-scale marine habitat restoration to support offshore grid expansion.

National Grid Electricity Distribution has also secured £147,000 in SIF funding for its Discovery phase ‘Matchmaker’ project, which will explore the development of a digital tool to connect renewable developers with local community energy groups. By bringing together developers’ technical expertise with local insight and potential investment from community groups, the project aims to help schemes progress more quickly, reduce costs and support greater community ownership of low carbon energy.

These projects form part of National Grid’s wider innovation programme, focused on addressing the challenges of a rapidly evolving energy system — including increasing demand from sectors such as data centres, integrating renewable generation, and delivering new infrastructure at pace.

Other recent National Grid innovation initiatives include Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), which identifies spare capacity on existing power lines to enable greater power flows; Emerald AI, a UK-first trial which demonstrated how AI-enabled data centres can flex their power demand by up to 40% in under a minute in response to real-time grid signals without impacting performance; and the rollout of sees.ai’s autonomous drone technology, now part of business-as-usual operations, which captures data on overhead lines to support smarter inspection and maintenance across the electricity network.

Neil McClymont, Head of Innovation at National Grid Electricity Transmission, said:

Innovation is essential if we are to keep pace with the changing demands on the electricity network. From supporting faster connections for large users like data centres, to improving how we plan and operate the system, these projects will help us build a smarter, more flexible and resilient network for the future.

The projects are funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK.

Full list of projects and funding

National Grid Electricity Transmission

Supporting data centre growth and faster grid connections
Project FLARE (Flexibility for Large Assets to Rapidly Energise) – £124,391
Led by National Grid Electricity Transmission in partnership with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), this project will explore how large electricity users – including data centres – could connect to the grid faster by introducing flexible demand arrangements.

The project will assess how flexible usage could unlock additional capacity on the network and develop a standard framework for defining and measuring flexible demand, building on existing approaches such as EPRI’s DCFlex framework, to evaluate how this could reduce connection times while making better use of existing infrastructure.

Improving planning for a more complex, high-demand system
Project PROMUPS (Probabilistic Methods for Uncertainty in Power Systems) – £138,674
Delivered by National Grid Electricity Transmission with WSP and the University of Edinburgh, this project will investigate new probabilistic modelling approaches to network planning.
The project seeks to improve how uncertainty in demand and generation is accounted for, helping support more efficient allocation of network capacity.

Using AI to improve asset monitoring and reliability
Project FoSMo (Foundation Source Model) – £355,985
Led by National Grid Electricity Transmission in collaboration with DScience Ltd (Keen AI), SP Electricity North West, UK Power Networks, SP Energy Networks and Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission, this project will develop and test shared artificial intelligence models for asset monitoring across transmission and distribution networks.
The project aims to improve fault detection, reliability and operational efficiency through the use of shared data and AI models.

Scaling environmental solutions alongside offshore expansion
Project AMPERES (Automating Marine Plant Ecosystem Restoration for Energy Supply) – £456,027
Led by National Grid Electricity Transmission with partners including the Ocean Conservation Trust, Land and Water, Robocean and DNV, this project will trial automated and robotic methods for restoring seagrass meadows, a key marine habitat at scale.
The project aims to support the environmental requirements associated with offshore electricity infrastructure.

National Grid Electricity Distribution

Connecting renewable developers with local community energy groups 

Project Matchmarker - £147,000 

A National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) SIF project is seeking to create a first for the UK. 

NGED is working in partnership with Regen and TPZ Impact to help developers of commercial wind farms, solar and battery storage find local community energy groups to support their developments 

The Matchmaker project will investigate creating a digital tool to bring community energy groups (CEGs) and developers together. 

The idea is implement renewable projects faster and cheaper. CEGs can provide not only local knowledge to minimise planning objections, but also investment in schemes to boost community ownership of renewable assets.  

It is hoped the Matchmaker project, which has been awarded £147,000 in SiF funding, could lead to more efficient use of locally generated clean energy and lower bills. 

NGED programme lead Jenny Woodruff said: “By bringing developers and community energy groups together through a simple digital tool, we can help schemes move forward quicker and at lower cost. Community groups bring local insight and trust, while developers bring technical expertise – and when those come together, it can lead to more successful projects and greater community ownership.”