Blog by Andrew Roper, DSO Director
Autumn is the perfect time of year to reflect on what’s been achieved over this past year on our journey towards a net zero electricity system – and to think about how we set our plans in motion as we consider the year ahead.
We’re doing good things right now. We’re growing the role of flexibility. We’re doing the detailed planning for new networks. We’re harnessing the power of data to help influence good net zero decision making.
And we’re keeping you all in the loop with our progress in each of these areas.
This work has provided us with a strong foundation to build on - and we’re ambitious to achieve so much more.
It’s with this in mind that that I look forward to our DSO in Action Autumn Series.
Running from Monday 30 September and throughout the first two weeks of October, we’ll focus on how we’re expanding flexibility services, our progress in developing new infrastructure, our leadership in making data accessible, and our deepening engagement with local communities and stakeholders. The following key areas and talking points we’ll explore during the Autumn Series will guide our continued efforts to ensure a resilient, sustainable, and fair energy future.
We’re taking another major step towards delivering a net zero electricity system, with our Strategic Development Plans.
These are being published over the course of the next year for where you live and work. In them, we’ll take predictions of electricity needs and use them to model projections of future growth, and build our plans around them. These will be living plans – we’ll be canvassing your views and feedback. And your insights will help shape our final decisions.
Sign up for the online Strategic Energy Planning event here
Our new flexibility procurement platform is up and running, and we’ll be holding new monthly auctions to procure flexibility when it’s needed.
The aim of this is to accelerate the development of a more dynamic and responsive grid that ensures reliability, and supports new low carbon tech, while also balancing supply and demand and connecting new renewable energy sources
Sign up for our online Fairer Domestic Flexibility event here
We’re expanding our commitment to publishing data to support good net zero decision making, and to ensure maximum transparency.
We’ll deliver new accessible datasets which will be published on our popular data portal. We’re also supporting people to use this data effectively, and we’ll further improving the tools and platforms that you interact with when you use them.
We’re hosting an invitation-only session for our NeRDA data portal users. If you’re interested in attending, please contact stakeholder.engagement@sse.com.
We’re doing things differently this year – moving away from a single large conference-style event and instead holding a number of bespoke events tailored to specific topic interests. It’s something you told us you wanted, and which we’re happy to deliver.
But one thing that’s not changed is our steadfast commitment to removing barriers, creating opportunities and enshrining the inclusivity that ensures a fair and open electricity system. Whether you’re a large industrial player or small community energy project, we’re committed to making the features of a smart, fair electricity system accessible and beneficial for everyone who wants to get involved.
We know our aims and initiatives are ambitious, but we also know that commitment and collaboration can bring them to life. Our DSO Autumn Series is part of that commitment; providing you with the opportunity to engage directly with our teams, learn more about our plans, and share your perspectives, and crucially tell us what you think.