Electricity North West launches its future vision for energy

Electricity North West has launched its vision for how it plans to support the fast-changing energy landscape, in its ‘Powering the North West’s Future’ report.

In the paper released today, the power network operator sets out its drive to meet the government’s decarbonisation targets, while at the same time supporting the developing needs of people, businesses and energy producers across its region.

The document outlines the key roles and responsibilities that moving to a smarter, more flexible distribution system operator (DSO) from a traditional distribution network operator (DNO) model brings – along with the technical and regulatory challenges the industry faces by that transition.

Following a paper last year entitled ‘The vital role for distribution system operators’, this report highlights eight key areas including: electric vehicles, community energy; renewable energy sources, new energy markets, electricity for heat, flexible consumption, active consumers and supporting economic growth.

Electricity North West strategy director, Paul Bircham said the “evolution” transforming the energy industry presented an exciting proposition for the business, whose job was now to develop new relationships with customers, the community and partners in the energy supply chain.

While the nature and pace of change cannot be predicted with certainty, he said, it was vital to identify likely themes and priorities now so the region could face the future with confidence.

He added: “We are certain the report will help to inform regional and national debate about the future role of DSOs.

“The traditional top down energy model is being redefined to a much more distributed model, and as a leading voice on energy policy, the report outlines how we intend to drive this vital transition.

“While the active decentralised model will enable us to support the production of energy locally and directly to communities, using renewable sources, it does present the need for network operators to transform into a smarter more flexible power network. This report highlights how we can meet these new future demands while ensuring bills remain affordable for our customers and supplies remain reliable.”

In December 2017, Electricity North West co-hosted a one-day interactive stakeholder event with Carbon Co-op to help shape thinking and plans around the future of the energy system.

It spoke at Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham’s inaugural Green Summit, which outlined plans to make it one of Europe’s greenest cities and has also launched the ‘Big Energy Conversation’ consumer hub, aimed at actively engaging the public about the reality of energy consumption.