Wireless Power Transmission

This project investigates the use of wireless power transmission (WPT) to enable quicker, more-flexible grid connections and overcome delays associated with installing traditional cabled infrastructure.

The project will identify, define, and evaluate high-impact use cases for Wireless Power Transmission (WPT) in addressing grid connection delays, capturing stakeholder requirements and constraints, and assessing the technical feasibility of WPT solutions compared to conventional wired alternatives. This will establish a robust evidence base for opportunity selection and concept development.

The project will then analyse the economic, environmental, technical, and regulatory benefits of WPT-for-Grid solutions in high-priority scenarios, while identifying barriers to adoption and potential mitigation strategies. This will provide a balanced assessment of the opportunities and risks, ensuring a credible justification for further development. A pathway for demonstration, adoption, and scaling of WPT-for-Grid in the UK electricity system will be defined. This includes evaluation of demonstration options, stakeholder engagement to shape an Alpha trial plan, and identification of standardisation and scaling opportunities. The outcome will be a clear roadmap to grid-scale deployment and integration into UK network planning.

Problem(s) 

Problem(s) The Clean Power 2030 Action Plan projects that UK electricity demand could more than double by 2050, with many forecasts now higher due to AI and data centre growth. Meeting this challenge will require a fourfold minimum increase in low-carbon generation and accelerated grid deployment. However, a critical barrier is the long lead time for connecting new grid assets, delaying renewable generation, electrification projects, and major new users such as data centres. Our WPT-for-Grid project directly addresses this issue by developing scalable, modular WPT systems that enable faster, more flexible and lower-impact connections for generation, interconnection and demand assets. Although transmission efficiency is lower than traditional cabling, the ability to deploy connections rapidly and adaptively can reduce overall system costs passed on to electricity consumers, while enhancing grid flexibility and resilience. This can accelerate progress toward the UK's 2030 clean-electricity target and relieve local bottlenecks caused by rapid electrification of transport, heating and industry.

WPT-for-Grid responds directly to the challenge of "leveraging breakthroughs in wireless power transmission to enhance grid performance." Modular WPT can be deployed quickly, relocated if needed, and integrated with renewable or storage assets to bypass lengthy cabling works. This supports the focus area of "wireless power transmission for grid expansion and resilience" by enabling faster, lower-cost connections that strengthen network reliability and redundancy. The project will define the baseline and roadmap for scaling WPT from laboratory demonstration to utility-scale application, strengthening the UK's clean-energy transition and delivering reliable, affordable electricity for consumers.

Potential users span the UK energy ecosystem. Network operators gain a tool to relieve bottleneck constraints and accelerate connections without major infrastructure works. Renewable developers can deliver generation earlier, improving system affordability. Industrial and commercial users (e.g. EV hubs, data centres) benefit from faster grid access. Remote and underserved communities, temporary operations and emergency response users gain deployable access to electricity, supporting inclusion of vulnerable consumers in the energy transition. Policymakers gain a scalable, low-cost solution supporting national decarbonisation and energy-security objectives. Consumers ultimately benefit through lower network charges, improved reliability, and faster access to clean electricity.

WPT-for-Grid builds on significant UK R&D. Space Solar's DESNZ-funded CASSiDI project demonstrated the technical viability and scalability of WPT for space-based solar power, leading to a high-power-density variant for terrestrial use. Professor Neil Buchanan of Queen's University Belfast, a WPT expert, contributes EPSRC-funded research "New Technologies for Efficient Wireless Power Transfer at Distance", referenced in the call.

Innovation Justification 

Transmitting high-power wirelessly over long distances safely represents a step change from current state of the art, where no products or services exist at grid-relevant power levels. The core innovative aspects of WPT-for-Grid are the design and control of a high-power wireless link operating in the 100s of kW to low MW range. A fully modular, tile-based, interconnecting design enables unlimited scalability, with the potential for multi-beam generation to serve more than one receiver simultaneously, offering unrivalled flexibility for grid applications.

Benchmarking against state of the art highlights the innovation. DARPA's POWER programme demonstrates optical WPT, targeting 3 kW at 1.5 km, with initial testing completed at 0.8 kW over 8.6 km. Innovate UK's drone-focused microwave WPT achieved 60 W at 6 m, using ~10 W per element, termed "medium power over medium distance."

WPT-for-Grid goes well beyond these efforts by advancing to hundreds of kW per link, modular architectures, and integrated control and safety systems tailored for electricity networks. WPT-for-Grid builds directly on prior research, that proved efficient 10 W element operation at relevant frequencies, but moves well beyond incremental steps by delivering innovations in:

(a) high-power, high-efficiency end-to-end WPT;

(b) fully modular tile design;

(c) integrated transmitter--receiver link with grid-relevant safety and control systems;

Current readiness levels are TRL 4, IRL 2, CRL 2. By the end of Discovery, we will progress to TRL 4, IRL 3, CRL 4 through system assessment, techno-economic assessment, and stakeholder engagement.

This aligns with SIF Discovery's purpose: de-risking transformative concepts too novel for business as usual (BAU)or price-control funded activities, yet too network-focused for academic or space programmes. The chosen balance of modelling, assessment, and cost--benefit analysis is appropriate to validate feasibility before advancing to Alpha phase demonstrations.

Counterfactuals solutions are considered. Conventional reinforcement via cables and substations is proven but slow, costly, and inflexible. Mobile substations or temporary cabling offer partial flexibility but remain resource-intensive. Optical WPT using lasers, as explored by DARPA's POWER programme, suffers from high atmospheric absorption and strong attenuation by water vapour and rainfall, meaning link efficiency degrades significantly in humid or wet conditions. By contrast, microwave WPT exhibits negligible degradation under these conditions, making it far more robust for UK deployment. Lower-power WPT demonstrations (e.g. drones, EV charging) validate principles but are not grid-relevant. In contrast, WPT-for-Grid uniquely combines scalability, deployability, and system-level impact, offering a transformative alternative for network expansion and resilience.

• Impacts and Benefits

  In June 2025, the UK connections queue across both transmission and distribution stood at 889 GW with around 75% associated with renewables and storage projects, far exceeding national net zero needs. Average wait times exceed 5years, with some projects facing 10+ year delays, and despite this backlog, less than 10 GW has been connected in each of the past two financial years.

  This creates higher consumer bills through constraint payments, slows decarbonisation, and deters investment. Temporary connection solutions often rely on diesel generation, with high operating costs and carbon emissions. Metrics to assess the pre-innovation baseline include: average connection wait times, annual constraint costs, outage duration, costs of unserved energy, embodied carbon in cables and civil works, and alternate fuel consumption where applicable.

  WPT offers a flexible option to reduce both wait times and connection costs, while also supporting new services for network resilience.

  Temporary WPT applications could provide:

  • Faster restoration of power following damage to infrastructure.
  • Quicker asset connections, bypassing delays for consent and civil works.
  • Capacity uplift during reinforcement, as an alternative to Active Network Management.
  • Reduced disruption during planned maintenance outages.

  Permanent WPT applications could enable:

  • Connections across obstacles where alternatives such as tunnelling would be expensive.
  • Access to remote or dispersed loads where physical connection is prohibitive.
  • Reduced landscape disruption in AONB.
  • Integration of remote renewables and offshore renewables without extensive cabling.

  Discovery Phase delivery

  WPT-for-Grid will develop a structured benefits analysis, down-selecting the two most promising WPT use cases based on technical and economic feasibility. Benefits will be quantified on a rough-order-of-magnitude basis against conventional counterfactuals. This includes calculating potential CO. and financial savings, establishing baseline metrics, and identifying "quick win" deployments such as temporary construction connections or microgrid support.

  No benefits have been realised to date, but Discovery will provide the evidence base for adoption into business-as-usual, demonstrating WPT's potential to lower system costs, enable net zero, and deliver direct value to UK energy consumers.

• Key Outputs

  By the end of the Discovery Phase, WPT-for-Grid will deliver four key outputs:

  1. Assessment of high-impact opportunities and technical feasibility of utilising WPT for new grid connections (D1) -- establishing the evidence base for where WPT can deliver the greatest benefit to the UK electricity distribution and transmission systems.
  2. Benefits and barriers analysis (D2) -- providing a quantified assessment of economic, environmental, and operational impacts, alongside regulatory and social adoption challenges.
  3. Adoption roadmap and trial planning (D3) -- defining pathways for Alpha and Beta stage demonstrations, subsequent distribution scaling, and wider transmission integration.
  4. Standardisation and scaling report (D4) -- outlining requirements for interoperability, safety, and regulation to enable broad adoption.

  Together, these outputs will demonstrate how WPT can accelerate grid connections, relieve bottlenecks, and support net-zero delivery, while identifying the steps required for trial and scaled commercialisation.

• Responsibilities for Outputs and Dissemination
  • NGED will coordinate D1 and oversee integration across all outputs.
  • Space Solar will co-lead technical feasibility assessment in D1 and lead trial planning in D3.
  • Frazer-Nash Consultancy will lead techno-economic assessment in D2 and support standardisation analysis in D4.
  • All partners and subcontractors will contribute to dissemination through joint project reporting, stakeholder engagement, and communication activities.
  • Formal dissemination will be completed by the project lead, NGED.

  Outputs and lessons learned will be disseminated through multiple channels:

  • Formal Deliverables will be submitted, published on the ENA Smarter Networks Portal, and shared with Ofgem, DSIT, ESOs, and network operators.
  • Workshops and Stakeholder Engagement (WP3) will provide interactive sessions to present findings, receive feedback, and build adoption pathways with DNOs, TNOs, regulators, and potential customers.
  • End of Phase public show and tell webinar(s) for interested stakeholders and expert assessors.
  • Public-Facing Summaries will be made available on partner websites and via ENA Smarter Networks Portal for partner engagement.
  • Knowledge Sharing with SIF -- outputs and lessons learned will be fed directly into Ofgem / UKRI knowledge-sharing mechanisms, supporting cross-project learning. The project will not undermine competitive markets. All outputs will be high-level, pre-commercial insights shared in a manner that supports system-wide innovation without providing unfair advantage to any one organisation. Having other potential solution providers in the technical advisory group also supports this. Intellectual property relating to detailed technical designs will remain with partners, while key findings, lessons, and recommendations will be openly disseminated. This ensures a level playing field, enabling multiple organisations to develop solutions that meet the identified needs.