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Sarah Sheehy, Rosemary Tawn, Mohamed Galeela and Nathanael Sims recently attended CIRED 2025 in Geneva bringing together contributors from across the globe, including utilities, manufacturers, academia, and innovators, to share insights and advancements in the planning and operation of distribution networks. The event offered a packed programme of presentations, poster sessions, and roundtables covering six core themes: network components; power quality and safety; operation; protection, control and automation; distribution system planning; and the evolving role of customers and regulation. Topics ranged from the integration of inverter-based resources and flexibility markets, to challenges in cyber security, data driven asset management, and evolving regulatory frameworks for DSOs. TNEI made several active contributions to the conference. Sarah Sheehy presented work from the ongoing Community DSO project with Northern Powergrid, which focuses on coordinating flexibility from local energy communities to manage low voltage network constraints. The approach combines real GIS-based network modelling with a flexibility coordinator to assess how

Cathal Ó Murchú and Nilanga Jayawarna recently attended the Global Offshore Wind Conference 2025, organised by RenewableUK at the Excel London conference centre. The two day conference brought together the offshore industry from around the world, with talks held on five different stages on a wide variety of topics related to Offshore Wind Farms. The entirety of the supply chain was represented from vessel licensees to cable installers to floating turbine anchor chain stress reducers. Of particular interest were the governmental keynotes and roundtable discussions which covered the industry goals and targets to the most urgent and pressing needs. These included job creation, skills transferability, potential investment opportunities and known bottlenecks in the supply chain. During government keynotes, multiple billions of pounds of investment was assured for the industry. At least 55GW of offshore potential was referenced between Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the coming decades. Notably absent from

The transmission network in the Dublin metro area has always been known to experience high short circuit currents. The rapid expansion of electricity demand and generation connections in Dublin has led to increased short-circuit fault levels, presenting significant safety concerns. As a result, both operational measures and infrastructure enhancements are required to manage these risks. EirGrid planners and operators use various strategies to minimise the risk of high short circuit currents – such as investment in technologies and substation sectionalising. EirGrid advises generator developers to thoroughly assess their connection strategies to avoid short-circuit constraints that may impact project timelines or viability. The EirGrid Grid Code specifies the short circuit current requirements for the Ireland transmission system. The Grid Code | The Grid | EirGrid The recent EirGrid short circuit memo outlines the challenges for generators connecting to the transmission network in the Dublin metro area Short-Circuit-Summary-for-Industry-27032025.pdf Are you concerned that

Jason Baldwin, Andrew Birchby and Jim Singleton recently attended the International Conference on Wind Turbine Noise in Copenhagen, organised by DTU Wind (Department of Wind and Energy Systems, Technical University of Denmark). The four days included many interesting presentations, during which, the latest research was shared with the aim of contributing to industry best practice. Discussion forums were also held where areas for further research were identified and the perspectives of developers, consultants and turbine manufacturers could be shared. Topics covered included mechanisms of noise generation, noise propagation, noise assessment and noise mitigation, with respect to both noise level and character. Of particular interest was the continued development of mitigation options and how these can be deployed on existing and future sites to both reduce noise and boost energy generation. A number of sessions were also devoted to the perception of wind turbine noise, annoyance, community involvement and acceptance, and

Don’t risk losing out on your place in the connections queue, all evidence must be submitted before 29th July 2025. Last week (10th June), NESO published the timeline for the delivery of connections reform in Britain. The timeline includes key dates for projects looking to progress to a Gate 2 offer as part of the Gate 2 to whole queue (G2TWQ) process, under CMP (Code Modification Proposal) 435: Application of Gate 2 Criteria to existing contracted background. Figure 1: NESO Connections Reform Timeline The key milestones TNEI has identified for projects passing through G2TWQ include: 20th May 2025 – DNO Evidence Submission Opens. Small and medium embedded generators are now able to submit their evidence of meeting the Gate 2 requirements to their relevant DNO. Depending on the DNO evidence is either submitted via email using the NESO Readiness Declaration template or through an online portal. 8th July 2025 –

Our TNEI USA team recently attended the American CLEANPOWER conference in Phoenix from May 19-22 at the Phoenix Convention Center.  The conference drew over 8,000 attendees and 500 exhibitors. This is an annual conference for the renewable energy sector showcasing products, services, and advancements for clean energy based projects.  It was an informative 4 day event with great networking opportunities highlighting Q1 2025 installations (4.5GW of utility scale solar, 1.6GW of grid facing energy storage, and 1.3GW of land based wind) as well as the domestic manufacturing & economic impact of clean energy. Speakers and presenters continued to highlight the large increase in electricity demand throughout the US being driven by AI, data centers, the electrification of transportation, and the importance of good grid interconnections to ensure supply security.  The next conference is scheduled for June 1–4, 2026, at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, TX. Read more here