Ofgem expedites net zero fund process and increases application windows

The UK’s energy regulator is introducing more frequent opportunities to submit applications and speeding up financing. 

The Strategic Innovation Fund [SIF] was set up with the aims of bringing rocketing energy bills down, cutting carbon dioxide emissions and boosting British energy security. 

Moving forward, there will be three application windows per year for all project phases, up from one. This will increase flexibility in development start dates and timelines for completion. In theory, it will now be possible to progress from Discovery to Beta stages in 23 months, around eight months less than the previous rules allowed for. 

A total of £95million has just been released by the SIF for ten tech-focused projects, including AI use in energy network risk prediction and circuit breakers for offshore wind integration. It is hoped that the changes to how the fund works and is administered will also make it easier to secure funding.

The SIF is focused on financing developments in the gas and electricity network, and aims to invest £450million in a five year period, starting in 2021. Proposals for any social, regulatory, market, legal or technical innovation are welcomed, with ideas submitted through the UK’s Innovation Funding Service portal.

‘In the past few decades, the energy system has already begun to move from its old way of thinking and doing to adopting new technologies like smart meters and new arrangements to create flexibility in the energy system,’ said Maria Zafar, Deputy Directory Strategy-Energy Systems Management and Security at Ofgem.

‘There is still more that needs to be done, we need longer duration energy storage and seasonal storage,’ she continued. ‘We need households to have smart devices that automatically flex when the system sends signals. We need nuclear, carbon capture utilisation and storage, offshore wind, onshore wind and digital solutions that can use machine learning to run the energy system efficiently and visibly.’

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Image: Zosia Szopka