NGED Import Project

National Grid Energy Distributions (NGED) and formerly Weston Power Distribution (WPD) provide open data describing the electricity infrastructure within their territory that covers South Wales, Central and South West England. This project aims to import this data. The provided data includes information on overhead lines and poles/pylons, underground lines and substations/transformers. Due to quality issues with the data, this project will be a tool assisted manual import where each and every way and node will be traced manually or generated by script and checked manually.

NGED/WPD area map

Progress

Ordnance Survey National Grid

Completed Grids

	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80
	SV															SE
08	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
06	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
04	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
02	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
00	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes											N/A	N/A	N/A		N/A
											SJ					SK					TF
08											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A									N/A	N/A
06											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A										N/A	N/A
04											N/A	N/A	N/A											N/A	N/A
02											N/A	N/A												N/A	N/A
00											N/A													N/A	N/A
	SM					SN					SO					SP					TL
08	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes	yes											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
06	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
04	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes											N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
02	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	RE										N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
00	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes	IN					N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	SR					SS					ST					SU
08	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	yes	yes	N/A	yes									N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
06	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A								N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
04	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A							N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
02	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A									N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
00	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A									N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	SW					SX					SY
08	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A										N/A	N/A
06	N/A	N/A	N/A									N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
04	N/A	N/A									N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
02	N/A					N/A	N/A	N/A			N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
00	N/A	N/A	N/A		N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80	00	20	40	60	80

IN = In Progress RE = Needs redoing due to quality issues

Source Data

This project will utilize a number of NGED datasets acquired in January 2024. these datasets were acquired via NGED's web data portal [1]. The raw data is organized in to 20km x 20km grids utilizing OS National Grid system. This data is unfortunately too poor in quality to be used for an automated import as such this project will be a manual import aided with various scripts. The raw data contains a large number of duplicate nodes and each section of a overhead line is constructed as a separate way. Overhead lines also on occasion follow the completely wrong path diverting from reality by 10s to 100s of metres and poles locations are regularly inaccurate.

Licencing

NGED currently offers its data under one of two licences depending on the dataset. A 'Open' Licence which is based on OGLv3, viewable here: https://www.nationalgrid.co.uk/open-data-licence, and a 'Shared' licence which terms are not obvious but presumed to be non-open. Until June/July 2024, all dataset were open however since then datasets describing infrastructure have been reverted to the shared licence. As a result only datasets dating from January 2024 that were acquired under a open licence will be used.

Process

The exact process of the project had changed over time as new and better methods have been adopted. A number of the older grids may not be up to the standard described in this section.

11KV lines will be imported from data using the following process:

Each grid will be imported one at a time and will use the following procedure

• Data from separate Overhead line, underground line and substation files will be merged together.
• A script will then be run on the merged data that will perform the following actions:
  • replace NGED tags with OSM tags
  • delete earth wires
  • merge overlapping power=pole nodes to remove gaps in continuous ways
  • merge transformers with the nearest power pole
  • remove overlapping power=pole nodes on the same way
  • merge multiple continuous ways into a single way
• every node and way will then be manually inspected and adjusted with use of imagery.
• underground cables:
  • overlapping underground cables will be merged together into a single way with use of the cables=*
  • power=circuit relations will be added to cables to represent path of complete circuits when grouped together. this process may be skipped if multiple cables have not been grouped together.
• location:transition=yes and line_management=transition will be added to transition points.
• where imported data overlaps with existing lines, the existing lines with be retagged and used as much as possible.

As higher voltage levels are far less numerous and mostly already mapped, Instead of being imported via a script, these voltage levels will be imported by manually via tracing. Substations will also be mapped to a high level of detail during this stage.

Tags

Overhead lines

• power=minor_line
• voltage=*
• cables=*
• circuits=*
• source=nged_open_data

Underground lines

• power=cable
• voltage=*
• cables=*
• circuits=*
• source=nged_open_data

Pole transformers

• power=pole
• transformer=distribution
• voltage:primary=*
• voltage:secondary=*
• name=<from data> + "Pole Transformer"
• operator=National Grid Electricity Distribution Plc
• operator:wikidata=Q7988183
• ref:GB:wpd_site=<From Data>
• source=nged_open_data

Substations (Ground mounted transformers)

• power=substation
• substation=minor_distribution
• voltage=*
• name=<from data> + "Substation"
• operator=National Grid Electricity Distribution Plc
• operator:wikidata=Q7988183
• ref:GB:wpd_site=<From Data>
• source=nged_open_data

Circuit Relations & Deviation from Proposal

Mostly for the purpose of maintain the connectivity of grouped underground cables. This project utilizes the proposed power=circuit relations. However this project usage deviates from the proposal in one major way. The proposal only allows a single relation to have two endpoints. The lines this project works with regularly contains branches that are not distinguishable from the trunk in any way especially in the case of underground lines. The requirement for each branch to be mapped as a separate relation and the additional requirement of the branch relation causes the required number of relations and complexity to rise dramatically for no benefit. There for this project disregards the Two endpoint limit of the proposal and maps all connected lines and endpoints within a single power=circuit relation.

Contact

Please contact Kitsee (kitsee on osm, edits, contrib, heatmap, chngset com.)

Discussions

• Original Discord discussion: NGED_Import_Project/Discord_Discussion
• Current Forum discussion: [2]