A major industry innovation project led by SSEN Transmission is aiming to reduce the time it takes to develop new electricity transmission infrastructure.
The Routing and Planning through Interoperable Data (RAPID) project aims to cut the route planning and development process for new transmission infrastructure from around five years to two by transforming how engineering, planning, consenting and land data is structured, shared and used across the industry.
Accelerating transmission development would help unlock more home-grown clean energy, strengthening the UK’s energy security, SSEN Transmission added.
Following successful initial work to explore and develop the concept, RAPID has secured more than £450,000 through the energy regulator Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) to move into its next phase of development and testing.
Led by SSEN Transmission, RAPID brings together National Grid Electricity Transmission, SP Energy Networks Transmission, the National Energy System Operator (NESO) and Arup to tackle a shared industry challenge and find new ways to accelerate the planning and delivery of transmission infrastructure.
The project builds on its successful Discovery phase, which assessed the feasibility of the concept and explored how standardised approaches, digital tools, automation and artificial intelligence could help transform route planning and development.
Having demonstrated the potential of the concept, RAPID will now move into a six-month Alpha phase, where the partners will develop and test the approach in more detail. This will include creating a common digital framework connecting engineering, planning, consenting and land information across the industry.
By establishing a more consistent approach to managing and exchanging data, RAPID aims to improve collaboration, reduce inefficiencies and enable faster decision-making. The work will also lay the foundations for more advanced digital and AI-enabled tools in the future.
Ultimately, RAPID aims to demonstrate how industry collaboration and smarter use of data can significantly shorten development times, helping deliver the transmission network needed to unlock clean energy projects and strengthen the UK’s long-term energy security, SSEN Transmission said.
Brant Wilson, Senior Manager of Innovation at SSEN Transmission, said:
“Delivering the transmission infrastructure needed to connect and transport more home-grown clean energy will be critical to building a cleaner, more secure energy system. To achieve that, we need to find innovative ways to accelerate development and work more effectively across the industry.
“RAPID brings together transmission network operators, the system operator and industry partners to tackle a challenge we all share. By developing a more consistent approach to how data is structured, shared and used, we believe there is a real opportunity to significantly speed up the development of the infrastructure needed to unlock new clean energy projects.
“Following the success of the project’s initial work, this funding allows us to move into development and testing and start demonstrating how these ideas could work in practice. It’s a great example of the industry working together to innovate, accelerate infrastructure delivery and support the UK’s long-term energy security.”
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