Dates:
Competition closes: 23 October 2024, 11am
Applicants notified: 5 December 2024
Scope and Specific Themes
You must select the primary SIF Innovation Challenge focus theme that your project is targeting.
Challenge 1: Faster Network Deployment: Theme 1: novel methods to increase electrical capacity from existing assets or support faster and more efficient connection methods including using digital innovations. Theme 2: regional balancing approaches to accelerate low carbon technology deployment
Challenge 2: Greater heat flexibility: Theme 1: flexibility solutions to reduce peak electricity demand from heat decarbonisation.
Challenge 3: Embedding resilience: Theme 1: Cross vector approaches to decarbonise rural communities in a resilient manner. Theme 2: Transition planning for an energy system with reducing natural gas demand
Challenge 4: Accelerating towards net zero energy networks: Theme 1: Innovation to improve efficiency of network operations.
Any proposed project must contributing to four key cross-cutting areas:
inclusive development – ensuring the solution is applicable and accessible to diverse customer and consumer segments through relevant stakeholder engagement and user centric design principles
skills and capability – consider throughout the project where upskilling and new capability development is needed and signalling those needs to relevant third parties like academics, training institutes and key supply chain partners
supply chains – assess the deliverability and scalability of the solution across the GB network from a supply chain perspective including maturity of supply chains, potential vulnerabilities such as labour requirements, logistical and environmental risks
data and digitalisation – harness digitalisation and implementing Energy Data Best Practice across all areas
Applicants must demonstrate that the Projects deliver a net benefit to consumers through: financial cost reductions; emission reduction; access to revenues for network users; introducing new products, process and services to the UK energy market.
Your proposal must focus on network innovation that can benefit GB energy network infrastructure, consumers, operation, and utilisation.
You must address: users and their context; constraints affecting the problem or wider context; opportunities for improvement; environmental impacts
Eligibility
- To lead you must be a Ofgem licensed electricity or gas distribution network, transmission operator, or Electricity System Operator (ESO)
- This competition is open to collaborative applications only.
- Subsidy Control and EC State Aid funding rules apply.
Funding Rates
Your Project must: have total eligible SIF requested funding of no more than £150,000, exclusive of VAT;
provide a minimum of 10% of total Project costs as a compulsory contribution from alternative funds
start after 1 January 2025; end by 31 May 2025; be completed within the five month window
How PNO can support you
The UK team has a strong track record in securing some of the most competitive national and European grants on behalf of its clients, with a full understanding of how a project should be presented to stand the highest chance of success. Each year in the UK alone, we are responsible for the submission of more than 100 funding applications across all sectors and priority areas. Based on this extensive experience, through careful project selection and using key insight into how a project should be best positioned, we consistently achieve success rates that are more than 5 times the typical success rates for UK national schemes and EU programmes.
For further information or to discuss a project idea please contact PNO Consultants
0161 488 3488 | info.uk@pnoconsultants.com
