UK Power Networks has chosen Advanced Infrastructure for the development of a Digital Local Area Energy Planning Tool designed to support local authorities in the development of Local Area Energy Plans (LAEPs) as well as enabling UK Power Networks to better forecast and plan for network enhancements.

Advanced Infrastructure, which develops and provides spatial analytics and digital twins for the energy transition, was awarded the contract as part of UK Power Networks’ project CLEO (Collaborative Local Energy Optimisation).

The aim of project CLEO is to develop a digital local area energy planning (LAEP) tool that allows Local Authorities and their stakeholders to layer local inputs such as decarbonisation strategies and action plans, local market trends, social inclusion policies and transport plans upon UKPN’s existing network infrastructure data. 

The CLEO tool will allow Local Authorities and other energy system stakeholders to rapidly evaluate different approaches to deploying Low Carbon Technologies (LCT). It achieves this by digitally and geo-spatially modelling the relative impacts and determining the best approach to suit individual Local Authorities, their communities and potential investors. 

Funded by the Network Innovation Allowance administered by Ofgem, the cloud-based CLEO tool will build upon Advanced Infrastructure’s existing LAEP+ software. The tool will allow access to UKPN’s electrical network, third party gas network data as well as developing further geospatial data key to low-carbon technology rollouts such as solar PV potential, heat pump potential, building energy efficiency improvements, planning restrictions, and energy demand.

Users will be able to use the CLEO tool to visualise data and optimise the deployment of low-carbon technologies to maximise social benefits, carbon reduction, and renewable generation, getting the most out of their investment and delivering real benefits for their communities. Local authorities will be able to create and share plans via the tool to help inform when and where UK Power Networks invests in its electricity infrastructure. 

The tool will also bring  to life UK Power Networks’ forecasts for when and where low carbon technologies like electric vehicles and heat pumps will grow in numbers, giving local authorities a view on what a decarbonisation pathway might look like for them. 

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Advanced Infrastructure Co-Founder and Head of Product Lily Cairns Haylor commented:  

“Our partnership with UK Power Networks will help to cost-effectively accelerate the deployment of much needed low carbon technologies across many local authorities. 

“Through the development of the CLEO tool, once difficult to navigate data and local area energy plans can now be visualised with a streamlined tool in a collaborative environment to  achieve the Net Zero targets.”

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‍Lynne McDonald, head of Local Net Zero at UK Power Networks said: “We are setting out to help local authorities with tools, people and data they need to turn their Net Zero ambitions into a reality. We’re excited to be working with Advanced Infrastructure and the local authorities we serve to build a service that’s simple to use and delivers genuinely useful outputs.”