OpenLV is trialling some open-source software that monitors electricity substation performance and electricity demand. It’s called LV-CAP™.

This website takes data from LV-CAP™ and uses it to show information - in the form of graphs, charts and ‘smileys’ - about energy use in seven selected communities. The information is anonymous and is the total of all the homes connected to the substation; it doesn’t show data for individual households.

The data will give a better understanding of the energy use in the seven communities and help them come up with innovative projects of their own:

Marshfield Energy Group will develop an app to allow local people to see real-time energy demand and grid carbon intensity, and adjust their use accordingly. Data will also be used to build a picture of energy use across the village and explore ideas for making the village more sustainable.

Bath & West Community Energy will use OpenLV data to develop a demand management app to enable homeowners to adapt their energy use and encourage the take up of battery storage and solar PV.

Tamar Energy Community’s project will centre around awareness raising, changing energy use behaviour, and the development of local tariff models.

Rooftop Housing Group will trial an app on a housing development in Cheltenham that will give residents access to their community’s real-time electricity demand, with the intention of raising awareness and changing energy use behaviour.

WHG Housing Association will develop an app for use in a single tower block that will help drive forward an electric heating retrofit project and help residents make the most of a new tariff that rewards off-peak electricity consumption.

Exeter Community Energy Ltd will develop an app to show local users energy use at substation level, data on local generation from assets owned by the group, and information about national grid carbon intensity. They also plan to use data to explore the possibility of time-of-use tariffs, and for the expected increase in electric vehicle use.

Owen Square Community Energy will use substation data to promote take up of low carbon technologies by local households and match up solar PV and heat pump installations in a way that optimises the output of the local low voltage network.

And finally, Yealm Community Energy will combine local substation demand profile data and sub-metering data from downstream households and the community owned solar farm. They will use this data to perform multiple scenario simulations to better understand the interactions between demand, generation and grid supply in their local LV grid.

The app that this website uses to present data from LV-CAP was developed by the Centre for Sustainable Energy.

OpenLV is managed by EA Technology and is being run in Western Power Distribution’s licence areas (the Midlands, the South West and South Wales).