Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution partnered with energy tech firm Electron to expand its procurement of flexibility services.
This three-year partnership will allow SSEN to use Electron’s next-generation flexibility market platform, ElectronConnect, to streamline its entry into the Flexibility Service Provider (FSP) market.
This will then open up new opportunities for both long-term and short-term flexibility from a single platform, which is in line with the ambitions set out in SSEN’s Flexibility Roadmap.
It is worth noting that National Grid announced a similar partnership with Electron in April 2024 to increase the volume of flexibility for both system operators. The collaboration between National Grid’s Distribution System Operator (DSO) and Electron will see Electron integrate ElectronConnect with the DSO’s Market Gateway.
The platform provides an application programming interface for the end-to-end procurement and contract management process, meeting the needs of network providers’ stakeholders.
Data migration to Electron’s platform will happen over the summer, and the first bidding windows will be accessible through ElectronConnect in August.
SSEN’s head of network operations, Nigel Bessant, said: “Digitalisation is at the heart of DSO transition, and it is key to accelerating our Net Zero plans. In our DSO Acceleration Plan, we identified Flexibility Services as a key area where we needed to refine our digital tools.
“With our partnership with Electron, we are doing just that. This new platform is critical to further building our flexibility portfolio to meet the requirements identified in our Distribution Network Options Assessment.”
Electron CEO and co-founder Jo-Jo Hubbard added: “We are incredibly excited about the ambition of SSEN’s vision for scaling flexibility markets; they have contracted over 700MW of flexibility in the past few months alone. Being selected to support this expansion across both central southern England and north of Scotland is hugely significant for Electron.”
Flexibility expansion
The significance of flexibility in the UK’s electricity market cannot be understated, given the nation’s strained grid and ever-growing electricity demand.
This is also true for neighbouring markets, especially Ireland, which is forecast to have the highest demand growth rate in Europe for electricity demand and consumption, where it is expected to rise by, on average, almost 7% per year.
Utility ESB Networks recently announced that Ireland’s electricity grid now has 1GW of energy storage available to help its reliability.
This figure includes 731.5MW of battery storage projects and 292MW from Turlough Hill pumped storage power station – which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
Large-scale battery energy storage projects and Turlough Hill pumped storage power stations combine to provide flexibility and support more renewables in Ireland’s electricity system.
