SSEN defers £44m of reinforcement work through flexibility

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution has deferred £44 million of reinforcement work by using flexibility services instead.

In total, SSEN has procured 700MW of flexibility during the past year.

The company’s first annual DSO (distribution system operator) submission reveals this has allowed it to avoid £44 million in reinforcement costs for RIIO ED2, some £12 million more than its target for the whole of the regulatory period ending in 2028.

SSEN’s DSO submission adds: “Flexibility is a key part of our net zero delivery strategy.

“Although network reinforcement will undoubtedly be required to meet the growth in connections and demand for low carbon technology, flexibility is a key part of our DSO toolkit.

“It allows us to connect customers faster, make more efficient use of network capacity and reduce outages.”

The report adds that SSEN spent just over £180,000 with nine flexibility providers during the past year.

The company has also announced its decision to select Electron’s ‘ElectronConnect’ platform to streamline and expand its procurement of flexibility services moving forwards.

This three-year partnership allows SSEN to use ElectronConnect to streamline the entry into the market for flexibility service providers (FSPs).

SSEN said this will “open up new opportunities for both long-term and short-term flexibility from a single platform [which] provides the end-to-end procurement and contract management process, with an intuitive application programming interface, to meet the needs of SSEN’s stakeholders”.

SSEN’s head of network operations Nigel Bessant added: “Digitalisation is at the heart of DSO transition, and it’s key to accelerating our net zero plans. […]

“This new platform is critical to further building our flexibility portfolio to meet the requirements identified in our Distribution Network Options Assessment.

“Electron is a great partner for SSEN on this digital journey, with a well-aligned product and service vision, and a commitment to collaborative development.”

Electron chief executive and co-founder Jo-Jo Hubbard said: “We’re incredibly excited about the ambition of SSEN’s vision for scaling flexibility markets; they’ve contracted over 700MW of flexibility in the past few months alone. […]

“We’ve built our platform to unlock flexibility at scale, so we’re delighted to be bringing this to life with the SSEN team and the Flexibility Service Providers who’re active in their licence areas.”

SSEN’s DSO submission also reveals huge increases in its connections pipeline. In total, SSEN’s 2024 pipeline has 31GW of generation capacity awaiting a connection, some 284% more than its forecast for 2030.

Battery storage makes up more than half of the pipeline (16GW) and represents a 695% uplift compared to what was forecast for 2030.

The pipeline also includes 7.6GW of solar and 4.5GW of onshore wind – again both exceeding the 2030 forecast.

The report adds that SSEN has achieved benefits of £28.3 million by unlocking 7.1GW of capacity through the Technical Limits programme, which is allowing projects to connect to lower voltage distribution networks prior to reinforcement of the high voltage transmission network.

SSEN announced in December 2023 that it had revised offers for 25 projects in its southern area with a combined capacity of 2.5GW. A further 4.1GW is being unlocked through the second phase of offers this spring.

In total, more than 200 projects with a combined capacity of 7.8GW have had their connection dates brought forwards under the scheme.

UKPN has also submitted its first annual DSO report, claiming to have delivered £199 million of net benefits to customers over the first 12 months following its establishment as a legally separate entity in April last year.

In January 2024 Utility Week established its Flexibility Forum, in association with our strategic partner CGI, to help break down barriers to energy flexibility growth and provide an independent setting for sense-checking the direction of travel in flexibility market governance and regulation. The Flexibility Forum community includes stakeholders from across the energy value chain. Outputs from the forum to date include a report of the status of demand side flexibility markets in GB and a review of the discussion at the Forum’s first meeting.