Dunboyne firm EMR Integrated Solutions has won a €13 million contract with the UK’s Northern Powergrid to facilitate its move to a smarter, greener electricity grid. The project involves upgrading the company’s SCADA system across 7,500 substations, which enables a low-carbon, smart grid future through enhanced remote network management.
Under the terms of the deal, EMR will upgrade the company’s secondary Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system to an IP (Internet Protocol) communications platform across 7,500 distribution substations.
This investment will enable Northern Powergrid to activate enhanced automation across these substations, centralise control of its remote field assets and build a better understanding of electricity consumption patterns across the grid.
20 green energy jobs
EMR’s UK operation, based in Manchester, is growing steadily and is recruiting to support 20 green energy jobs by early 2022.
This project is a critical part of Northern Powergrid’s ongoing work at the forefront of net zero development and green growth. The company powers everyday life for eight million people across 3.9 million homes and businesses in the northeast of England, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.
Mark Nicholson, Northern Powergrid’s head of Smart Grids, said: “This project will enhance network flexibility and build more digital capability to meet our customers’ needs now and in the future. It will help facilitate our transition to a Distribution System Operator (DSO) that actively manages varying generation and demands across our grid as our customers become more dependent on electricity to power their lights, heating and transport.
“The ability to remotely operate more of our assets and improve network visibility through collection of real-time monitoring data will help us provide better services to our customers.
"We can use the IP network to remotely troubleshoot and manage devices across the air, which reduces infrastructure management costs and enables us to be responsive to an active network and the needs of our customers.”
“This is an exciting contract for EMR to be part of,” said Alan Feenan, sales director with EMR. "The project design offers Northern Powergrid a secure, responsive and fully compliant technical solution, while delivering a robust and easy to manage platform for the organisation’s team of engineers.
'Critical element of their digital transformation'
“Our approach to designing, building and supporting utility networks is viewed by many utility providers as a critical element of their digital transformation efforts and organisations such as Northern Powergrid have responded positively, viewing EMR as a safe pair of hands.”
Paul Green, project manager for Northern Powergrid, said: “The project rollout is underway and due for completion by March 2023.
“We’re working closely with the team at EMR to ensure we have the support we need to deliver our plans. Where we have technical challenges, we work together to overcome them, and the project team is very responsive which is important as we make this investment a reality for our customers.”
EMR entered the UK utility market a little more than five years ago and during that time has established a strong footprint working with utility providers such as SSE, Greencoat UK Wind, Greater Gabbard OFTO, Northern Ireland Water, Severn Trent Water and Affinity Water.
(Main image: Alan Feenan, sales director with EMR)