Revolutionising energy in Wales: Powering Wales Renewably

Over the next four years, an innovative digital twin of the entire Welsh energy system will be developed. This cutting-edge project will accelerate the delivery of generation, bolster energy security in Wales and is projected to deliver £58.5m worth of savings on consumer bills between 2030 and 2035. 

Our innovation project, Pweru Cymru yn adnewyddol (Powering Wales Renewably, PWR), is bringing the Welsh Government, whole energy system users, and network operators together to develop a digital twin of Wales’s energy system to benefit Wales through improved system efficiency. In September 2024, the project received Beta phase funding from Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund. Since then, we’ve started the groundwork to develop a working prototype. 

Over the next four years, delivering a digital twin – a virtual replica – of the entire Welsh energy transmission and distribution systems, including electricity and gas transmission and distribution networks will allow us to identify where the best places are to locate renewable energy generation. Speeding up the delivery of renewables in Wales will benefit the economy and improve the resilience of energy in Wales, allowing the nation to become more dependent on locally generated energy. During this period, we expect to make significant progress in digitalisation and data sharing across the industry to maximise benefits for stakeholders and align it with our Virtual Energy System programme – a digital replica of the whole of GB’s energy system.

The project is designed to deliver a range of benefits, including cost savings on energy bills of £58.5m between 2030 and 2035 for consumers, improved energy security and a reduction in up to 2 million tonnes of carbon emissions associated with electricity generation to improve air quality for Welsh communities. It also aims to reduce the cost of operating the network by reducing flexibility costs and avoiding curtailment costs (typically associated with there being too much wind or solar on the system to make use of), as well as annual cost savings for users of network services through improved network capacity utilisation.

PWR could also help reduce energy bills by lowering Transmission Network Use of System (TNUoS) charges, which are the costs for the installation, operation and maintenance of GB's electricity transmission network, paid by large generators and electricity suppliers, but often passed onto their customers.

Read more about all our innovation projects and the progress that’s being made in our Innovation Annual Summary. In the summary, you can look back at what we’ve achieved over the last year in the innovation space and explore case studies of our standout projects.

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