A partnership of UK companiesImass and Econnecthas been awarded a grant of £90 000 by the Department of Trade and Industry under its Collaborative Research and Development Technology Programme to continue their work in the Renewable Energy sector.
With support from DTI/OfgemImass and Econnect have successfully completed a £450000 research project which delivered secure access to information related to the UK electricity distribution network and renewable energy projects via an internet service. The new funding will support a follow-on project to build on the success of the research in order to provide a live service covering the whole of the UK.
Using advanced internet and GIS technologiesthe service provides access to an accurate view of the current state of the distribution network and distributed generation connectionsand automates the assessment of connection opportunities for distributed generation using online tools.
Imass and Econnect have proven that the internet service is capable of reducing the elapsed time taken to assess connection opportunities from weeks or months to a few minutes.Dave CurryProject DirectorImass said: “Tools of this sort will become increasingly important as it becomes possible to attach more distributed generation to the network through the development of active network management techniques.”
The role of Econnect within the collaboration is to provide software services including a connection assessment software toolas well as providing in-depth electrical engineering expertise.
Christine BarbierProject ManagerEconnectsaid: “Econnect is already developing leading edge active network management techniques and this project is a natural progression for us to provide enhanced services to developers and other interested parties to help to promote the integration of increasing amounts of renewable energy into the grid.”
Imass are geospatial applications specialists providing client specific software applications and services for the waterelectricityfirepolicechemicalproperty and automotive markets.
Based in Newcastle upon Tyne it specialises in Geographical Information Systems (GIS)Operational systems including CRMComputer Aided Design (CAD)document managementreal-time and mobile systems.
The Econnect Groupbased in HexhamNorthumberlandis an innovator in the electrical grid integration of renewable and sustainable energy. The Group comprises consultancyconstruction and product businesses with international offices in Ireland and Australia.
For more informationvisit www.imass.co.uk
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