Under Pressure: How TSOs Like NGET Are Tackling Grid Investment Challenges
Transmission System Operators (TSOs) are in a tough spot.
Across Europe and beyond, TSOs are tasked with modernizing aging networks, connecting increasing volumes of renewables, and doing it all without compromising reliability—or overspending.
The problem is: Most systems used to plan and manage these investments weren’t built for the scale or complexity of today’s challenges.
Familiar Problems, Mounting Pressure
If you work in or around grid infrastructure, you’ll recognize the symptoms:
- Maintenance backlogs are growing. Assets nearing end of life. Budgets are under strain.
- Customer connection timelines are tightening, while grid access requests become more complex.
- Planning tools are fragmented spreadsheets here, legacy systems there. Data and decisions are siloed.
- Outage planning has become a balancing act. Fewer windows, more constraints.
- And over it all, regulators are asking for clearer justifications. Show your work. Prove the value. Balance risk with cost. Deliver measurable outcomes.
It’s a lot. And without a way to see the full picture, capital efficiency, resilience, and public confidence are at risk.
What NGET Did Differently
National Grid Electricity Transmission (NGET), which operates the high-voltage network across England and Wales, saw this coming.
They realized that frequency-based maintenance and siloed planning tools wouldn’t scale—not for a £1 billion-a-year investment portfolio. So, they partnered with IFS Copperleaf® to rethink how they make investment decisions.
The result was a unified system for asset investment planning (AIP) built on the IFS Copperleaf Value Framework®. Risk, cost, and value are now modeled consistently across all assets on a common economic scale. Intelligent Bundling ensures outages are planned to maximize efficiency, combining interventions wherever possible. Maintenance plans are risk-based, not routine.
Real Impact
This wasn’t a software rollout. It was a transformation in how decisions get made.
- Plan value up by 270%—thanks to smarter intervention timing and bundling
- Maintenance volumes went down by 17%, with £4.4 million saved over five years
- Planning cycle cut in half—from 12 weeks to 6
- Outage setup costs reduced by £2.5 million annually
For planners, the process is faster and clearer. For leaders, it delivers capital efficiency, defensible regulatory submissions, and a direct line of sight into how investments advance strategic outcomes like resilience and net zero.
Why it Matters
Every TSO faces the same tensions: keep the lights on, keep costs down, and build a more resilient grid. NGET’s approach proves it’s possible with the right decision framework and a willingness to rethink old habits.
With IFS Copperleaf, capital planning moves from fragmented and reactive to strategic, transparent, and outcome-driven. This shift not only strengthens operational performance but also builds stakeholder trust and accelerates progress toward decarbonization.
Want the full story? The case study walks through the model NGET used, and the lessons learned along the way.
👉Read more