Introduction: The project will develop a geospatial information system (GIS) demonstrator showing how smart data can be uploaded and applied to improve key business decision making.

Objectives: Low carbon energy networks are being developed at Northern Powergrid which utilise distributed energy resources (DERs) and smart home technologies. This project is in the form of part-sponsorship of a university PhD being carried out under the auspices of Sheffield University’s EFutures programme. It aims to understand what information will become available with the introduction of new smart meter and low carbon technologies into the market place, and to establish how we can derive business benefit from it by either changing existing processes or introducing new processes.

The relevance of this project to the business then is that it aims to make a significant contribution to the next generation of network management systems through understanding and showing the capabilities of geospatial diagrams and data representation with regards to low carbon and smart data, in terms of the impact they can have on network management. The project contributes to our preparedness for the future by enhancing our understanding of the data management implications of low carbon technologies.