Distribution network operator (DNO) Electricity North West (ENW) has launched its largest-ever flexibility tender, with up to £12 million in potential revenue available to participants.
The tender calls for 879MW of flexibility services – beating the firm’s previous record of 870MW – across 100 locations in the DNO’s operational area, which covers Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Cumbria.
Notably for this tender round, there are an increased number of opportunities on the low voltage network, which has been expanded across an additional 67 eligible locations alongside existing opportunities on the high voltage and extra high voltage networks. The company states that this expansion of low voltage opportunities represents a major step towards widening flexibility market participation from residential flexibility providers.
Low voltage flexibility opportunities were first introduced by ENW in November of last year, and initially covered 44 eligible locations. This tender will be hosted on the ElectronConnect platform, which the firm adopted in early 2024 under a two-year agreement designed to lower the barriers to flexibility market participation and bring a wider array of data to ENW’s flexibility services.
Ben Grunfeld, strategy and growth director at ENW, said that expanding low voltage flexibility requirements is “a great way for homes, businesses and communities to play an active role in shaping a smarter, more sustainable energy system.”
Last month, ENW announced its intentions to transition from being a DNO to a distribution system operator (DSO) under its “Social DSO” model. This strategy centres around providing the maximum benefit to the local community through timely investments, increasing participation in the energy transition and working collaboratively to increase system efficiency.
In October 2024, ENW secured a £500,000 funding injection from Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) for a new project exploring how homes and businesses can use air conditioning flexibility to help balance the grid at peak times, reducing the need for the building of costly new infrastructure.
Late last year, Iberdrola closed its acquisition of 88% of ENW, a transaction that saw the Spanish utility make the UK its primary market in terms of network asset base value. The deal, which was cleared by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in March of this year, valued ENW at around €5 billion (£4.182 billion), bringing Iberdrola’s regulated asset value in the UK to around £11.6 billion and making the company the UK’s second largest electricity network operator.
