Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution has released its largest single offering of flexibility services zones.
The 37 new zones sit across the north of Scotland and central southern England and tenders will be open to all providers with no capacity limits.
Also known as Constraint Managed Zones (CMZs), tendering for these flexibility services zones offers an alternative to traditional network management, allowing renewable energy generation and storage to manage high levels of demand as opposed to diesel generators or back-up power stations.
SSEN pointed to the Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan 2021 released by the government this week, which heighted the potential for flexibility to save £10 billion a year by 2050, while creating 24,000 jobs.
“Flexibility and CMZs will play a key role in the journey to net zero as demand on the electricity network increases,” said Alex Howison, flexible solutions manager for SSEN. “We are really excited to launch our largest single offering of flexibility services with these 37 new zones, and how they are supporting greater network resilience through a more efficient and cost-effective approach.”
The new zones consist of 12 in central and southern England and 25 in the north of Scotland. Initially 24 of the Scottish zones will open for tender on Monday 26 July and close on Friday 17 August, while the remaining 13 zones will open in December and close in January 2022.
To date, SSEN has secured 603MWs of flexibility services, including 348MW across seven sites using CMZs in February.