Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) announced on 28 March 2023 that it has developed an algorithm that uses smart meter data to identify which phase each customer is connected to, without sending engineers to site1.
Nearly half of SSEN's customers in its licence areas across the north of Scotland and central southern England now have smart meters installed, the network operator said1. Local electricity cables have three separate wires, termed phases, with each customer connected to one of the three. Over time some phases have carried significantly more load than others as households adopt low carbon technologies such as car chargers or heat pumps, which creates a challenge for the network operator1.
SSEN said site visits are frequently used as part of new connections requests, but these can take more time to complete. The algorithm instead processes smart meter data and identifies the minute similarities between voltage changes in each house, grouping them to establish remotely which phase each customer is on, without a single mile being driven1. SSEN said the information will support more efficient network management, allow more low carbon technology to connect to the existing network, reduce energy loss from the local system and help speed the location of faults1.
"The voltage variation of each phase on our network is almost like a fingerprint, a near-unique profile that can allow us to pinpoint precisely which part of our network a customer is connected to. This is allowing us to update our records remotely and automatically, which is a far more efficient way of gathering and maintaining this valuable data set."
SSEN said customers will see the benefit through quicker and more automated responses to requests for new connections and upgrades, speedier restoration of local network faults and more accurate supply interruption notifications1. The company also linked better network data to more targeted deployment of flexibility services, which it said could help support a fully decarbonised electricity system by 2035. It cited a potential reduction in UK energy system costs of up to £10bn per year by 2050 and the possible creation of 24,000 jobs1.
Victoria Bacon, Director of Communications at Smart Energy GB, said every one of the 31.3 million smart meters already installed across Britain is helping to unlock a cleaner, smarter and more flexible way of using energy, and described SSEN's use of smart meter data as an example of how the devices can support innovation1.
Why it matters for households
The phase a home sits on is normally invisible to the people living there, but it shapes how quickly a connection can be approved and how the local network behaves under load. SSEN's approach means the record of which phase a property uses can be corrected from meter data rather than a visit, which the company says shortens responses to connection and upgrade requests and speeds up fault location and supply interruption notifications1.
For a household, the practical link is between the data a smart meter already records and the network's ability to accept new electrical loads. SSEN states that better visibility of its low voltage network allows more precise procurement of flexibility services, the shifting of generation or demand in time or location1. Households that take part in peak pricing arrangements or demand flexibility are part of that picture, and the smart meter is the device that makes a home's consumption visible to such schemes. Homes without one are outside this data set; the site's guide on joining a demand flexibility service without a smart meter covers that position.
What happens next
SSEN has not reported a timetable for rolling the algorithm out across its licence areas, nor how many connections or faults it expects it to affect. The 2035 decarbonisation and 2050 cost and jobs figures are cited by SSEN as the potential benefits of flexibility, not as commitments or forecasts for this specific tool1.