National Grid DSO unveils expansion plan

National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) has unveiled a two year action plan for its Distribution System Operator (DSO) at an event hosted at London’s Battersea Power Station.

During its first year of full functional separation, NGED’s DSO achieved milestones, including the addition of 10GW of capacity through initiatives like ‘Technical Limits,’ and registering 70,000 flexibility assets on its ‘Market Gateway’ platform.

Additionally, over £80 million in network investment was deferred by procuring flexibility services, and progress was made in connecting renewable generation and distributed energy resources.

Looking ahead to 2024, the DSO aims to implement short term local forecasting using weather data, expand the PRIDE project to support more local authorities and introduce initiatives like day-ahead flexibility competitions.

The focus on ‘flexibility first’ seeks to optimise existing network capacity, reducing costs to consumers and accelerating decarbonisation.

NGED supports National Grid ESO’s commitment to review and potentially remove exclusivity clauses in its Demand Flexibility Service, which could broaden opportunities for flexibility providers.

Ben Godfrey, Director, Distribution System Operator, National Grid Electricity Distribution, said: “We’re in full support of the ESO’s plan to remove exclusivity arrangements from its Demand Flexibility Service and would like to see this change made as soon as is practical so we can expand our ‘flexibility first’ approach to decarbonising the electricity distribution network as efficiently as possible.”