The pilot will involve three sites. Each site will require a solar panel with metered kW output, a weather station to record solar radiation and communications to deliver data back to National Grid Wokingham. Two of the sites will be National Grid House and Deeside substation. These have been chosen to utilise existing infrastructure; this minimises setup costs but it also tests different potential starting scenarios. National Grid House currently has 165 kW of solar panels. Deeside Substation currently has a weather station.

Both will require only a partial set-up. The third site will be a second National Grid substation. This will have neither solar panels nor a weather station and will require a full setup. The table below summarises the infrastructure needed for each site under the pilot.

Where required, a solar panel of a nominal capacity of 1kW will be installed. Solar panels will be from a common manufacturer and installed by a standard domestic provider; this is to best represent domestic installations.

The other aspects of the project will be delivered using infrastructure developed for the Strategic Asset Management program (SAM). To deliver SAM, Asset Management has established a standard for weather stations; and has developed a remote data network linking National Grid sites (RAMM). These will be utilised for this project. Once collected, data will be transferred and stored in the Energy Forecasting System (EFS).

Benefits

The project will be deemed a success based on the following criteria:

• Set up three pilot sites for PV monitoring

• Establish reliable real-time data feed between each site and Wokingham National Control

• Understand the challenges and costs of solar panel installation; weather station installation; communications involved in the setup of the project

• Establish the feasibility of this approach to collate and monitor metered generation and weather data necessary to develop forecast models and estimate solar generation

• If proven viable,the development of a methodology for wider scale roll-out.