Smart Grids for Science Parks l Unlock Capacity Without Waiting on the DNO

How Emerald Tide Helped Harwell Turn Grid Constraints into a Campus Scale Smart Grid, Delivering Capacity, Resilience & Lower Costs

Picture this. You are standing at the edge of a fast-growing campus. The masterplan is bold. The investment is ready. The talent is arriving. But beneath your feet, hidden in the cables and substations, lies a bottleneck that could halt it all: the grid.

This was the reality at Harwell Science Campus. A £300 million expansion was on the line. Thousands of scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs needed space to innovate. Yet the electricity system that powered the site was not built for this pace of growth. To wait for the traditional fix (a grid reinforcement) meant waiting a decade or more. Too long. Too risky. Too costly.

So when our founder, James, was presented this challenge during his tenure at Harwell, he decided to ask a different question: What if we could rewire the rules?

From Capacity Crunch to Energy Canvas

The answer became the UK’s first commercial smart grid at a science park. Partnering with SNRG, James orchestrated and led the solution to this challenge and continues to consult with the project team through Emerald Tide.

Instead of treating the grid as an immovable limit, James and SNRG turned it into a canvas. A place where solar panels, batteries, backup generators, and intelligent controllers could work together in real time. A place where one building’s idle headroom could flow to another. A place where the campus itself became the utility.

What is a Smart Grid Anyway?

A smart grid is essentially a local energy network (often called a microgrid) that manages electricity dynamically from multiple sources to meet demand efficiently, reliably, and sustainably.

At Harwell, the smart grid integrates:

• Grid supply at 11 kV, providing a strong and secure external feed.
• On-site solar PV, generating low-cost, clean electricity.
• A 1 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), charging when electricity is cheap or abundant, then discharging during high-tariff periods or peak demand.
• Backup generators, coordinated by the smart controller, running only when optimal for resilience or peak shaving.
• An Energy Management System (EMS), the “brain” that draws on tariff data, weather forecasts, and building usage profiles to predict, balance, and protect.
  
  

  

  A conceptual diagram showing how Harwell’s smart grid connects to the 11 kV supply, integrates solar PV, battery storage, and backup generators, and uses a central controller to balance power flows across multiple buildings and flexible loads such as EV charging.

The Shift That Changed Everything

Previously, Harwell’s setup was siloed: each building had its own DNO-owned meter and allocation. If one building had spare capacity, it could not support another. The result was large amounts of contracted headroom left unused.

Now, with a single high-voltage master meter and a private 11 kV campus network, loads can be aggregated and balanced. Peaks in one building can be offset by troughs in another. Suddenly, previously locked capacity is freed to support the next phase of growth.

The infrastructure is also designed for resilience. Two independent 11 kV feeds, looped underground cabling, duplicate transformers, and smart switchgear mean power will soon flow with the reliability that life science tenants demand.

The Payoff: Growth, Cost, Carbon, Confidence

With energisation of the smart grid beginning in November 2025, and the first buildings being switched on into 2026, the payoff is already clear:

1. Reserved capacity for expansion: The aggregated 5 MW first phase connects five diverse facilities - laboratories, advanced manufacturing, amenities, a nursery, and an innovation centre. This allows Harwell to expand without waiting for costly off-site reinforcements that could take more than a decade.
2. Lower energy costs: On-site solar is delivered to tenants at around 35 percent below the 2024 UK average price (Harwell Campus, 2024). Battery arbitrage further reduces costs by charging at off-peak tariffs and discharging during DUoS peak periods. Consolidating meters cuts duplicated standing charges.
3. Resilience and reliability: With 2N redundancy and predictive monitoring, the system can reroute power instantly or dispatch stored energy if faults are detected. Sensitive operations - from labs to manufacturing - can continue uninterrupted.
4. Carbon savings: Phase one is projected to save 230 tonnes of CO₂ in its first year of operation, with further reductions as more solar and storage are added. Avoiding unnecessary grid reinforcements also prevents the carbon footprint of new infrastructure works.
5. Intelligence in action: The EMS forecasts solar output and demand, adjusting imports proactively. For example, it can top up the battery overnight ahead of a cloudy day or reduce grid draw in anticipation of sunny hours. Building load diversity becomes an advantage: a lab’s steady equipment use, a factory’s cycles, and a nursery’s daytime peak balance each other across the network. Sensors across transformers and switchgear provide predictive maintenance, flagging anomalies before they cause downtime.
6. A model for others: Harwell’s smart grid is a live demonstration for universities, science parks, and innovation campuses across the UK and beyond, showing how to unlock growth without waiting on the DNO.
   

The “So What?”

So why is this interesting and/or important? For infrastructure and development directors, the parallels are hard to ignore. Across the UK, grid connection delays are forcing projects into limbo, with wait times stretching into the 2030s in some regions. Ambitious masterplans are at risk of being strangled by the grid.

Harwell’s project shows there is another way. A smart grid is not just an energy solution. It is a growth solution. It lets you:

• Unlock capacity you already have.
• Move at the speed of your vision, not the pace of the DNO.
• Cut operating costs for tenants.
• Deliver measurable carbon savings.
• Protect sensitive operations with resilient power.
  
  

  Emerald Tide’s Role

James initially worked in-house, leading the delivery of the Harwell smart grid solution. James acted as Project Director, guiding the system from boardroom strategy to site execution. He worked directly with Harwell leadership to shape the vision, then translated it into a technically robust design and coordinated its implementation on the ground.

While SNRG provided the platform and investment framework, James ensured the smart grid was engineered, integrated, and future-proofed. James will continue to work with Harwell and SNRG through Emerald Tide during the energisation phase into 2026, ensuring the grid goes live smoothly and that its full benefits (lower costs, higher resilience, reduced carbon, and unlocked capacity for expansion) are realised in practice.

This dual fluency (strategic and technical) is what makes Emerald Tide different. We don’t just design energy infrastructure; we make it work for growth.

Ready to Rewire the Rules?

If your campus or development is facing grid constraints, rising energy costs, or sustainability pressures, the Harwell smart grid proves there is another way.

Emerald Tide helps turn energy from constraint into advantage. Let’s explore how.

Sources: Harwell Campus press releases (harwellcampus.com), SNRG smart grid project reports, UK energy industry analysis of smart microgrids.