What if the most capital-intensive solution is actually the least intelligent one?
For decades, grid reinforcement has been the default response to rising electricity demand. When networks approach their limits, the answer has traditionally been straightforward: install larger transformers, lay more cable, expand substations. Capital flows, assets grow, balance sheets swell.
But today’s grid constraints are no longer primarily structural. They are operational. And that distinction matters enormously for infrastructure investors.
The uncomfortable truth about reinforcement
Low-voltage networks are increasingly constrained not by a lack of copper, but by voltage excursions, phase imbalance, poor power factor, and harmonics driven by EV charging, rooftop solar, heat pumps, and batteries.
This is not conjecture. The UK Government’s Low Voltage Network Capacity Study reached a clear conclusion after modelling how best to resolve LV constraints out to 2050:
“The Transform model shows a significant preference towards low capex solutions for resolving constraints on the LV networks.”
In other words, when evaluated on techno-economic grounds, smart, operational solutions consistently outperform traditional reinforcement.
Capital intensity without capital intelligence
The scale of reinforcement spend required under the status quo is striking. The same UK study estimated:
£25.6 billion of total expenditure on LV networks between 2020 and 2040, with £9.4 billion required in the first decade alone.
Yet much of this spend is triggered by voltage limits and power quality issues rather than thermal exhaustion of assets. Reinforcing the grid treats the symptom, not the cause, while locking capital into long-life assets that remain operationally blind.
For investors, this raises a fundamental question: why deploy billions in slow, irreversible infrastructure when capacity can be released faster and cheaper through intelligent control?
Unlocking capacity without building it
Power systems research repeatedly shows that improving how networks operate can materially increase usable capacity.
A real-world power factor correction case study demonstrated that improving power factor from 0.75 to 0.95 increased transformer capacity by 21.05 percent, without replacing the transformer or upgrading cables.
This is capacity unlocked, not built.
The same principles apply at network level. Studies on voltage control and flexibility consistently find that operational measures can defer or avoid reinforcement entirely, particularly in low-voltage networks where DER penetration is the dominant stressor rather than raw demand growth.
The grid problem has shifted
Low-voltage grids were designed for one-way power flows and predictable demand. They are now expected to absorb rapid swings in generation and load at the edge of the network.
Academic research into distribution planning increasingly concludes that distributed flexibility and dynamic voltage management are more cost-effective than reinforcement until extremely high penetrations of generation are reached. One study found that flexibility solutions remain economically superior until PV generation exceeds 145 percent of annual network demand.
This reinforces a simple reality: the limiting factor is not infrastructure scarcity, but control.
A better investment logic
For infrastructure investors, the implications are clear.
The rational investment question is no longer:
How much new infrastructure do we need to build?
It is:
- How quickly can capacity be released?
- How much CAPEX can be avoided or deferred?
- How adaptable is the solution to changing load profiles?
- How does it improve power quality while doing so?
Technologies that actively manage voltage, reactive power, and phase balance score higher on capital efficiency, deployment speed, and risk-adjusted returns than traditional reinforcement.
This is precisely why we developed the NEx.
Installed at secondary substations, NEx dynamically regulates voltage, balances phases, corrects power factor, and reduces harmonics in real time. In live network trials, this approach has demonstrated the ability to unlock up to 20 percent additional usable capacity on existing infrastructure without laying new cable or replacing transformers.
For investors, this represents a shift from capital-heavy expansion to capital-smart optimisation: faster deployment, lower risk, measurable performance, and immediate relevance to the realities of electrification.
In a world where demand is accelerating faster than infrastructure can be built, the least rational investment may be the one that simply pours more concrete.
The most intelligent one is the one that makes the grid work smarter.
