The funded projects target key areas including faster infrastructure delivery, consumer-led decarbonisation, green gas integration, enhanced system visibility, flexible charging solutions, and improved outage resilience. These initiatives are set to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing the energy sector, aiming for significant advancements by set target dates.
Several projects are focused on accelerating industrial and business connections. The DISPATCH project will investigate efficient network capacity use and how data centres can provide low-temperature waste heat, aligning with the ambition to energise major strategic sites within six months by 2033. Another initiative, RAPID, aims to streamline planning and consent processes through a shared transmission data interoperability framework, supporting the goal of delivering infrastructure 50% faster and 20% cheaper by 2035.
For domestic energy use, the Roaming MPANs project will simplify electric vehicle (EV) charging by linking household electricity accounts securely to public chargers, enabling access to smart tariffs and rates. This aims to support affordable and equitable charging, with plug-and-play connections for domestic energy devices by 2032.
To eliminate energy outages, the SOS Racer project will assess how distributed demand-side flexibility can strengthen electricity security of supply and inform future resilience planning. The ambition for this challenge is to achieve near-zero interruptions through autonomous reconfiguration and islanding by 2038.
Each challenge will be supported by an Innovation Delivery Group (IDG), comprising energy network representatives, decision-makers, and experts. These groups will oversee project portfolios and have received discovery phase funding to develop Innovation Charters. These charters, to be published in January 2027, will provide strategic roadmaps, identify gaps, and prioritise innovation pathways.
Jodie Giles, Deputy Director of the Ofgem Strategic Innovation Fund at Innovate UK, highlighted the investment's focus on practical ideas and a new operating model that fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing. Marzia Zafar, Deputy Director of Digitalisation and Innovation at Ofgem, emphasised that the fund is helping the energy sector tackle major challenges, creating a clearer pathway from ideas to real-world deployment for a cleaner, more reliable, and affordable energy system.
“"This £16.2 million investment backs ambitious, practical ideas that will tackle the energy systems biggest challenges – from faster build and maintenance of networks to simpler EV charging and near zero outages."
“"Through the Strategic Innovation Fund, Ofgem is helping the energy sector tackle the biggest challenges facing Britain’s energy system, from connecting major new industrial sites more quickly and speeding up network delivery, to improving resilience and making it easier for consumers to benefit from new technologies."
