Energy supplier Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution has unveiled £30 million in funding to procure further flexibility services.
These new deals, referred to as overarching agreements, cover flexibility services in both SSEN’s central southern England and north of Scotland licence areas. These agreements will cover an eight-year period from 2024 to 2032.
SSEN confirmed a competition for ‘call off’ contracts under these agreements to deliver the flexibility services in 2024/2025. This opened on 15 February with 473MW available..
Catherine Winning, flexibility manager at SSEN, said: “I expect this new approach will remove one of the barriers to getting involved in flexibility, by reducing the level of contracting needed, thus allowing us to focus on the services we need and the value they deliver for the customer, and for ourselves.
“SSEN’s ‘Smart, Fair, Now” DSO Programme has it its heart making flexibility services open and accessible for wider society. The innovative, thoughtful way these agreements have been reached will underpin these goals.”
Energy suppliers focus on flexibility services
SSEN is not the only energy supplier that has been expanding its flexibility services. In late January 2024, National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) announced it had expanded its flexibility offer for winter 2024/25 across 1,426 new locations on its low voltage (LV) distribution network.
The LV Sustain service rewards domestic participants for reducing their energy demand during daily fixed 4-hour periods, as part of the National Grid’s ongoing distribution network upgrades in preparation for net zero.
According to National Grid over 1,200 households have been contracted through aggregators and energy suppliers to use their energy flexibility during ‘low energy usage periods.’ Following the recent expansion the LV Sustain service is now available to 176,000 customers across the National Grid’s LV network.
NGED has a significant role to play in expanding domestic flexibility service, as recognised by the Energy Networks Association in August 2023 which announced NGED as “GB’s largest flexibility provider”.
