S&C Electric Company and National Grid Electricity Distribution Sign Framework Agreement to Improve Grid Resilience Across the United Kingdom

CHICAGO, October 8, 2024 – S&C Electric Company, a leading innovator of resilient grid technology, signed a framework agreement with National Grid Electricity Distribution to improve the reliability and resilience of the UK’s largest electricity distribution network, which serves nearly 8 million customers.

Under the agreement. S&C will deliver its TripSaver® II Cutout-Mounted Recloser to National Grid to improve power resilience, reliability, operational efficiency, and customer experience.

This agreement came after a successful TripSaver II recloser trial that significantly reduced power interruptions and the total time customers were without power. Using TripSaver II reclosers also reduced the need to send out line crews for immediate troubleshooting to sites.

“Working closely with S&C on this trial has demonstrated significant improvements to not only network reliability but also customer satisfaction,” said Carl Ketley-Lowe, head of engineering policy at National Grid Electricity Distribution. “We look forward to expanding these great results from S&C solutions across our distribution network.”

“Our innovative technology and unparalleled expertise and focus on the distribution grid, where the majority of outages occur, means that S&C is uniquely qualified to best support distribution networks looking to improve the resilience and reliability of electric power delivery in their regions,” said Tomas Leander, S&C senior vice president–international markets.

TripSaver II reclosers provide an advanced spur-protection strategy to manage temporary overhead line faults, such as tree contact, wildlife, and flying debris, equating to more than ninety percent of the faults in the trial. TripSaver II reclosers combine the best aspects of fuse-saving and fuse-blowing strategies to improve system reliability. They prevent temporary faults from becoming sustained outages, avoiding short interruptions on feeders by only blinking the affected spurs. TripSaver II reclosers improve customer satisfaction scores, customer interruptions (CIs), and customer minutes lost (CMLs) by mitigating a sizable number of sustained outages.