Further 222MWs of network flexibility awarded in our latest flexibility procurement

We have awarded a further 222MWs of flexibility, concluding our sixth round of flexibility procurement.

To date, we have sought flexibility in 54 constraint locations across our network in England and Wales totalling 374MW. This latest procurement brings our total volume of contracted flex to 439MW – the highest among the UK’s distribution network operators.

This may look as though we have fulfilled our flexibility needs, but as Network Strategy Manager Ben Godfrey describes, there is still more work to do.

Ben commented: “Our strategy has always been to seek an excess of flexibility in each of our constraint locations to ensure we can meet the network’s needs. Having a pool of available providers offers us increased security, for example in the event of a provider’s unavailability due to asset maintenance or fault.

“While this round has been hugely successful, in reality only 11 of the 54 zones have a sufficient amount of excess and many are still under-fulfilled. We will be continuing to seek providers to fulfil around 170MW of further flexibility for under-fulfilled locations in future rounds of procurement. In addition, we will continue to identify new constraint locations as part of our flexibility first commitment.”

We use the Flexible Power platform to signpost and operate flexibility requirements. Earlier this month SP Energy Networks, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and Northern Powergrid announced they are collaborating on Flexible Power to signpost and operate all of their flexibility requirements, meaning prospective flexibility providers now have a direct path to participate in flexibility on multiple networks.

We will publish a full report detailing the procurement results from this round on 26 October. We plan to announce further flexibility locations on 11 Jan 2021, and will open a subsequent procurement window on 8 Feb 2021. Interested parties can register for updates here to be notified as soon as these are released.