Learnings

Outcomes

Under Phase 2 of the project, NEA recruited 30 households on NPG’s Priority Services Membership who fit the research criteria. The battery backup systems were installed during the winter of 22/23 and monitored them over the following year, considering technical performance and social impact of the systems. At the end of the monitoring period all 30 households felt a reduction in their level of concern around power cuts. There was a 78% reduction in the level of concern about power cuts as a direct result of the project. The battery systems worked well during all of the power cuts, with 23 households experiencing an outage of greater than 1 hour during the monitoring period. The battery was depleted at an average rate of 0.82kWh per hour of power cut, giving an average predicted duration of backup of 22.5 hours. 

The detailed report by NEA can be found attached in the project's documents on the Smarter Networks Portal. 

Lessons Learnt

Supply chain issues can cause significant delays to projects.
The aims of this project at face value were simple, i.e installation of an off the shelf product to test whether it performs to its designed purpose. However, the information and learning points gained from this project were significant to support how DNOs serve their most vulnerable customers during outage conditions. From home suitability surveys and consumption data we can identify the minimum needed in terms of installation requirements, capacity, and operative competency to provide a backup solution to essential equipment during outages.