NEWS

Climate demonstrator secures £10 million funding to boost energy resilience

CReDo+ looks to predict likely risks to energy networks from extreme weather events affecting the electricity network.

Nearly £10 million has been secured by UK Power Networks and partners including Connected Places Catapult to develop the Climate Resilience Demonstrator CReDo on behalf of gas and electricity regulator Ofgem and Innovate UK. 

In all, 12 ‘beta’ projects worth £84 million have been funded through the Strategic Innovation Fund, an Ofgem programme managed in partnership with Innovate UK as part of efforts to improve energy system resilience, prepare for net zero and accelerate decarbonisation. 

Climate Resilience Demonstrator CReDo+ secured £9.8 million through the ‘Improving energy system resilience and robustness’ challenge area to develop tools to help predict likely risks to energy networks from extreme weather events affecting the electricity network. 

CReDo+ expands on the existing CReDo project to target energy sector resilience and strengthen infrastructure robustness to extreme weather threats. 

The project aims to develop a digital twin platform to enhance investment planning for resilient infrastructure, and better understand the cascading risk from extreme weather events such as flooding, extreme heat and strong winds.  

Partners on the project are UK Power Networks (lead), Connected Places Catapult, Computational Modelling Cambridge Ltd, Science and Technology Facilities Council (through DAFNI and Hartree Centre), Cadent Gas, National Gas, SP Energy Networks, National Grid Electricity Systems Operator and the University of Edinburgh. 

“We are delighted to have secured this much needed funding to take forward our climate resilience demonstrator CReDo and to apply it more fully to the needs of the energy sector,”
Connected Places Catapult’s Data and Technical Lead, Dr Elliot Christou

“CReDo+ will help us to deliver a digital twin platform that will better understand infrastructure interdependencies, improve conditions for planning investment into climate resilience, and evaluate the benefits of taking action.” 

Elliot added that improving energy infrastructure resilience will likely lead to reduced costs of repair and restoration of assets, and that society would benefit too from essential services remaining operational in times of extreme weather.

Read more about the announcement from UK Power Networks here and about the project here.