Project Summary
DNOs face the dual challenge of expanding network capacity for decarbonisatio nwhile maintaining the resilience and reliability customers expect. Without new approaches, they risk higher operational hazards, slower fault response, and rising costs. This project will explore how robotics can transform network management, maintenance, and operations, identifying where automation can support or replace high‑risk, labour‑intensive, or disruptive tasks. By enabling faster, safer working practices and more efficient operations, robotics can minimise customer disruption. RISE will define how automation can unlock new capabilities, strengthen resilience, and provide a clear roadmap for meeting future operational, regulatory, and decarbonisation goals.
Innovation Justification
RISE establishes the foundations for a scalable, distribution‑wide approach to adopting robotics across GB networks. Discovery outputs will identify shared operational challenges that could be addressed by robotics and autonomous systems and translate them into a clear innovation roadmap and set of requirements.
Robotics and autonomous systems refer to a broad family of technologies capable of sensing, navigating, manipulating, and performing tasks with varying levels of autonomy. Examples already emerging in the sector are outlined in the innovation appendix.
DNOs are beginning to experiment with robotics incorporating them into core operations to drive resilience, efficiency and productivity, but the wider enablers---culture change, workforce skills, and scalable deployment---remain unaddressed and adoption remains fragmented and technology‑led.
The innovative aspect of RISE lies in its creation of a structured bridge between operational need and robotics innovation. Rather than developing a bespoke solution for a single use case, RISE establishes a repeatable, transferable model for identifying, shaping, and de‑risking robotics innovations network‑wide. This supports scalability, reduces duplication, and increases the likelihood that future robotics solutions can be adopted consistently across DNOs.
The transformative impact of strategic robotics adoption is observed in car manufacturing where it has become an established part of day-to-day production, attracting significant benefits in cost efficiency, productivity and safety.
Robotic welding cells deliver near‑perfect precision and dramatically reduce defects; AI‑enabled robotic vision systems improve inspection accuracy and collaborative robots reduce strain and improve safety for technicians. These examples only moved from pilots to core operational tools when supported by organisation‑wide readiness, clear requirements, and structured deployment pathways. RISE aims to enable the same shift within networks.
As robotics plays a growing role in how infrastructure is built, inspected, and maintained, networks require a structured, evidence‑based approach to ensure investment is targeted at the right technologies and operational functions. This creates an opportunity for networks to become increasingly capable and cost‑effective as they target investment in robotics in more strategic and coordinated ways.
RISE will deliver a Robotic Readiness Review to assess technological, organisational, governance and integration challenges, providing a holistic view of where robotics can add value and what barriers must be addressed. This will feed into structured road‑mapping and requirements definition, creating viable robotics innovation opportunities and clear adoption pathways.
The TRL of individual robotics solutions is use-case specific, however, RISE focuses on increasing the CRL and IRL for robotics to 4 increasing the potential for widespread adoption.
RISE Innovation Appendix.pdf (opens in a new window) (/application/10193298/form/question/51986/forminput/150130/file/913919/download) .
Impacts and Benefits
RISE Discovery will assess the technical feasibility, scalability and costs and benefits of applying high‑value robotics applications to enhance safety, efficiency and resilience in field operations, ensuring DNOs target investment at the right technologies and operational functions.
Financial Benefit -- Reducing the Cost of Operating the Network
Robotics could deliver major benefits for electricity distribution, including safer operations, improved productivity, higher reliability, lower costs, richer data insights, improved environmental compliance and stronger support for decarbonisation and renewable integration. These benefits position robotics as a cornerstone technology for the next generation of electricity networks. These efficiencies directly support future reductions in the overall cost of running thenetwork.
Financial Benefit -- Annual Savings on Consumer Energy Bills
Operational savings can be achieved through robotics---such as fewer customer interruptions, reduced fault‑response costs, and more efficient maintenance---can flow through to consumers under regulatory mechanisms. By enabling safer, faster and more reliable field operations, robotics can help reduce annual energy bills for households and businesses, supporting affordability alongside decarbonisation.
Financial Benefit -- Annual Savings for Users of Network Services
Customers benefit from reduced connection delays, fewer planned outages, and more predictable maintenance windows. Robotics can minimise disruption, and improve reliability, lowering the indirect and direct costs faced by network users and enabling faster grid expansion.
New‑to‑Market Products and Supply Chain Growth
Robotics adoption creates opportunities for suppliers to develop new tools, platforms and services tailored to electricity distribution. RISE will help shape a clearer, problem‑led market signal, enabling innovators to design solutions that meet real operational needs. This strengthens the UK robotics supply chain and accelerates commercialisation of new‑to‑market products that can be deployed across GB networks.
An illustrative example of an initial test of the framework is Live Line Working. DNOs rely on highly trained staff, specialist tools and adapted vehicles to carry out work on live electrical networks and avoid outages. Automating this would bring benefits to DNOs, including:
- Radical safety improvements: Prevent exposure to shock or arc-flash hazards; Reduced number of falls
- Enhanced precision and repeatability of key tasks
- Increased live line working capability -- delivering a broader range of tasks: Avoiding more customer interruptions; Perform broader range of tasks
- Maintenance costs and efficiency gains by augmenting capability of existing workforce
- Improved network reliability
- Upskilling (supplement human-labour): Evolving training and skills modernisation; Supports an ageing workforce and improves recruitment appeal
