Historically, a household’s energy needs are supplied by petrol or diesel for transport; gas or oil for heating; and electricity for other consumption. Our network has been designed for this level of electricity consumption. As these supplies are replaced by electrical alternatives, households’ energy use will transition to relying on electricity for all their needs, and many cases tripling maximum demand.
And all of this is happening on the low voltage network, a network which we have very limited visibility of or ability to operate. This means that at the distribution level, as a DSO, we will need to undertake activities that have historically only ever been done at scale on the transmission network. What has been a matter of business as usual and day to day activity for decades at the transmission level, is now moving to our distribution business, and that’s why we have undergone a transformation. Follow these links to read all about these activities within each of the roles of Planning and Network Development, Network Operations and Market Development.
The evolution of our DSO strategy
We first set out our DSO ambition in 2016, which outlined the needs case, the network challenges, and our road map to realise this transition. Since then, our thinking has continued to evolve, and we have taken a proactive approach to working with our stakeholders to understand their needs and developing our capabilities. We have also taken a leading role within the industry, actively supporting the ENA’s Open Networks programme.
We have also successfully delivered several innovation projects which have paved the way for how the DSO will operate, developing capabilities to enable the connection of low carbon technology to our network, enabling us to move quicker and free up capacity in constrained areas, and developing how we can procure and dispatch flexibility to support the management of our network.
DSO Strategy 2016
DSO Strategy 2020
DSO Strategy 2021
Latest Strategy