Over the next 10 years, Hovingham, like many other communities, will require approximately three times their present electricity demand (circa 1MW) more than today. The capacity of our present grid could be expanded to approximately 190kW, therefore the capacity will have to be built in order to support the demand. The present supply framework does not allow the grid provider, Northern Power, to anticipate future demand. Hence, Hovingham’s supply will be built up on an as needed basis, ie no strategic planning or investment. 

Communities like Hovingham, would like to develop our own renewable source. We carried out a feasibility study in 2019/20. However, the present grid supply framework does not easily allow connection for locally produced supply. 

Project Purple is a member of Northern Powergrid’s “Community Energy Stakeholder Panel”. One of the aims of the panel is to understand and influence the Government infrastructure planning that would support community initiatives like our own.

We’ve carried out a detailed feasibility study to install a community solar farm up to 2MW which was supported by the Rural Community Energy Fund. 

An array of this capacity would make it financially attractive to local individual investors and provide a revenue stream to support the communities needs. It would generate approximately twice Hovingham’s requirements based on estimated 2030’s demand. Unfortunately, we found after extensive evaluation the maximum grid connection in and around Hovingham is 190kW. We have therefore decided not to take it further at this time. 

We will continue working closely with Northern Power Grid to evaluate options in the future.