Electricity North West Lowers Voltage to Save Customers Money and Cut Carbon Emissions

45,000 households across the North West of England could see lower energy bills, under a scheme to dial down the voltage on the regional electricity grid.

During trials run on thousands of homes over four years, engineers with Electricity North West discovered they could reduce voltage on the grid to the lower end of the normal 220V to 240V range without making customers’ lights flicker or noticeably slowing their appliances.

“Nobody noticed the changes until they were given their bill and suddenly found out they’d been using less electricity,” Steve Cox, the local network’s engineering director, told the Guardian.

“If we reduced the voltage by a few percent, then a full kettle might take eight seconds longer to boil. If we boost the voltage, it might boil eight seconds faster. But within the typical time it takes to boil a kettle, say two minutes, this really isn’t noticeable.”

Now Electricity North West wants to expand the trials to all the homes it serves in the region. It estimates that using lower voltage across the grid could shave £60 from the average customer’s annual electricity bill.

It will also cut the network’s carbon emissions by 10% and keep 143,860 tonnes of carbon out of the atmosphere by 2050. That’s the equivalent of removing 2,570 polluting cars from the roads each year.

Voltage control is used in some U.S. states, but Electricity North West will be the first UK network to adopt it, allowing them to deliver exactly the right voltage at which appliances operate most frequently. Sensitive devices help identify that voltage sweet spot.

“It’s a bit like a car on the motorway. Your car could run at anywhere between 10mph to 90mph, but it operates most efficiently at 50mph,” Cox said.

“We monitor how much energy our customers are using in real time, and how much power is flowing through the network, and then we regulate the voltage down to the most efficient level so that appliances keep operating normally but consume less energy.”

Running at a lower voltage will also leave more capacity on the electricity grid for connecting more sources of renewable energy, including small scale projects, enabling the UK to switch to electric vehicles and heat pumps without adding to its carbon bill.

“Demand for electricity is set to double over the next 20 years, so we’re taking positive steps now to help the transition away from fossil fuels and make the low-carbon economy a reality,” Helen Boyle, decarbonisation manager at Electricity North West, said.

Electricity North West will also share its research with other regional electricity networks across the UK, to encourage wider adoption.