High Voltage Lab Open Day showcases Manchester’s cutting-edge electrification expertise

Manchester’s £9m High Voltage Lab - the biggest electrical infrastructure test facility in UK academia - has unveiled its new home on the Engineering Campus, in an exclusive industry event to 60 select VIPs.

Attended by senior representatives from companies including Electricity North West, National Grid Siemens, and SP Energy Networks, the Open Day revealed how our experts are revolutionising the future of electricity from the heart of Manchester.

In a full day of talks, on-campus tours and networking, the event brought to life the support available to current and potential partners as they tackle the energy transition. This included:

• The High Voltage Laboratory (HV Lab), and the teams develop real-world solutions for immediate deployment on live electricity networks
• The breadth of world-class facilities on campus such as Henry Royce Institute, Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, the Photon Science Institute – plus off-campus collaborative ventures including the national grid Deeside Centre for Innovation - enabling University partners access to research spanning the entire electrification challenge
• Manchester’s community of more than 100 techno-socio-economic researchers, providing a breadth and depth of electrification expertise currently unrivalled by other UK institutions.
• Business support via Manchester’s Business engagement services which includes research, knowledge exchange, consultancy, and commercialisation.

With a focus on future collaboration speakers including Nicola Todd, Head of Strategy and Innovation, National Grid, and Marc Payne, Senior Manager, bp, explained how the differing levels of support available at Manchester – ranging from long-term strategic innovation partnerships, to quick and flexible knowledge exchange services – have helped deliver real solutions, turning ambition into action.

The day culminated in a PDRA & PGR poster session, revealing Manchester’s commitment to training the next generation of engineers and innovators, by showing the work of PGRs and PDRAs who are - and will continue to - drive the energy transition.

Dr Qiang Liu, Head of High Voltage Research Group, explained: “Our Open Day was not just a celebration of our move to MECD, but a chance to share the real-world societal impact our researchers are having, by playing a pivotal role in ensuring the UK’s low carbon energy is sustainable, just and secure”.

Dr Qiang Liu continued: “Our event was an opportunity to open our doors to current and potential partners who share our ambition, so together we can ensure the UK has access to reliable, affordable, and environmentally sustainable energy - both now and in the future.”

The HV Lab Open Day is the first in a series of events focused on accelerating industry and academic collaboration to address the electrification challenge with a multidisciplinary approach by matching science and engineering with social science, economics, politics and arts.

If you are a researcher and would like to find out more about upcoming events, or discover opportunities to work with other UoM researchers with a shared interest in electrification, email may.bassanino@manchester.ac.uk who will add you to the dedicated Electrification Teams network.