The plan builds on Milton Keynes Council’s Low Carbon Living Program.
In partnership with the Council, Central Networks has submitted a £20m bid to Ofgem’s Low Carbon Networks Fund aimed at establishing an electricity smart grid that supports smart meters, electric vehicles, electric heating and distributed generation.
The MKSmart2020 bid is being jointly offered by Central Networks, Milton Keynes Council and Milton Keynes Partnership which includes Accenture, GE and Cisco Systems as partners.
The Low Carbon Networks Fund has been set up to support large-scale trials of smart grid technology, which will help the UK make the transition to a low carbon economy.
The bid seeks around £20m in funding the £32m project that is expected to transform into a low carbon zone by 2020.
Central Networks managing director John Crackett said that the UK’s electricity networks need to become smarter to deal with the changes in electricity use and generation.
“Using Milton Keynes as a living laboratory, our bid sets out to show how we can best manage the demands that will be put on the electricity network in years to come.”
Ofgem is due to announce winning bids of the Low Carbon Networks Fund in December 2010.
