Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution has revealed plans to tender 287MW of new flexibility capacity this year.
The distribution network operator (DNO) intends to produce an array of flexibility services with contracts being sought in 13 new zones in the north of Scotland and two zones in the south of England.
Flexibility is set to become an increasingly important aspect of the UK’s energy system as more low-carbon technologies connect to the grid, such as electric vehicles (EVs) and heat pumps, alongside distributed energy resources.
The services that SSEN hopes to acquire include Secure and Dynamic, which each pays an ‘availability and utilisation’ fee and Restore, which pays a utilisation-only payment.
“We’re excited to announce this increase in procurement of flexibility services in our north and south licence areas. Owners, operators or aggregators of generation, storage or demand assets with flex capacity over 50kW may be able to provide flexibility services in return for payment from SSEN for helping defer reinforcement, reduce customer interruptions and the need for mobile diesel generators,” said Nisha Doshi, flexibility markets manager at SSEN.
“Flexibility allows us to manage the network cost effectively, which ultimately benefits our customers, and I’d encourage potential providers to register and submit pre-qualification information before 30 April 2023 to participate in the tender.”
UK Power Networks (UKPN) also released a flexibility tender late last year which was their largest to date. The DNO looked to unlock 500MW of capacity across the network. UKPN had already awarded £44.5 million worth of flexibility contracts to 29 companies for almost 500MW of peak power up to 2028, having run its first flexibility tender in 2019.
DNOs are tendering for increasingly large amounts of flexibility to manage the increased number of low-carbon technologies on the grid, with Western Power Distribution launching a flexibility tender for 278.34MW in January 2022, SP Energy Networks accepting 555MW of bids for flexibility services in November 2021, and Electricity North West calling for 259MW of flexibility in the same month, for example.
