Over the next 10 years, Hovingham, like many other communities, will require approximately three times the amount of their present electricity demand as the UK moves from fossil fuel sources to electricity.   The supply framework does not allow the grid provider, Northern Power, to easily anticipate or facilitate future demand. Hence, Hovingham’s supply will be built on an ‘as needed’ basis, ie no strategic planning or investment.  This is partly due to Hovingham being at the end of the supply line. 

Many communities like ours would like to develop their own renewable power sources. In 2019/20 Project Purple carried out a feasibility study to install a community solar farm of around 2MW which was supported by the Rural Community Energy Fund. An array of this capacity would make it financially attractive to local investors and provide a revenue stream to support the community's needs. It would generate around double Hovingham’s energy requirements based on the estimated 2030’s demand. Unfortunately, we found after extensive evaluation the maximum grid export connection in Hovingham was 190kW. We therefore could not progress the scheme further. 

Project Purple is a member of Northern Powergrid’s ‘Community Energy Stakeholder Panel’. One of the main aims of the panel is to understand and influence Government infrastructure planning that would support community initiatives like our own.  We continue working closely with Northern Power Grid to evaluate future options but our planned scheme is dependent on grid improvements and energy market reforms which may take years to happen.