Blog by Andrew Roper, DSO Director
Prior to our DSO Autumn Series getting underway last month, I pledged these events would provide 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.
Now the series has concluded, it’s time for us to take stock and here are some headlines to get that process underway.
- We delivered twelve tailored events over the course of a fortnight.
- In total, we engaged in-person or online with more than 500 people.
- We spoke at a number of industry events, collaborating with a diverse range of groups.
That provides an overview of the quantitative success of the Autumn Series, and as nice as these headline figures are, the real insights come from what you told us while you were in our company.
The Series’ Launch Event got the ball rolling. We asked those attending about our achievements thus far: our growing of the role of flexibility, the detailed planning for new networks, and our harnessing the power of data to influence decisions would influence their own net zero progress.
What came back was both reassuring and gave us more direction on what we should focus on next; a theme recurrent across our DSO Autumn Series with further insights coming thick and fast from the subsequent events which included input from stakeholders as far north as Orkney, down to our southern distribution patch in London.
Some of the insights we gathered from these events tell us that:
- engaging with our DSO team at a very early stage when planning new projects is proving to be more productive
- there is enthusiasm for our Local Energy Net Zero Accelerator (LENZA) tool, with a clear vision for how it would be used to develop net zero plans for cities
- you want more detail on how our flexibility services development would align with community-based generators in generating new flex capacity, and that there’s a desire to see what we’d be doing to ensure greater coordination all the way from wholesale markets, through to local networks
- there’s an appetite for further information about the extra capacity that would be created by network reinforcement works
- you’d like more guidance on how to actively deliver a Local Area Energy Plan
- there’s a preference for customers to have direct access to the relevant staff when they have questions, as opposed to being directed to a generic email inbox.
Our Birmingham round table event brought senior-level stakeholders together to discuss policy, flexibility, low-carbon technologies, local governance and how DNOs will help facilitate delivery of the Government’s Local Power Plan.
While our own events help us enormously in understanding our customers’ needs, how best to address them and use their input to form our DSO Acceleration Strategy and Action Plan, it’s equally important that we look outside of our organisation.
It’s by doing this that we can widen the lens and see where we can incorporate other aspects that will elevate our response to rapidly changing energy landscape. This is why we also attended various external events, including the LEMA Conference in Kent, Scotland’s energy transition event in Edinburgh and London’s round table on the Regional Energy Strategic Plan.
It might seem a little early to start talking about the year ahead, but when you already have plans for how you’re going to drive ideas forward, then it’s hard not to, which is why we’re keen to share our second DSO Acceleration Strategy and Action Plan with you; an action plan formed through your input and which highlights achievements over the past year and outlines our next steps as we look to support the UK Government’s ambitious Clean Power targets.
It’s through your ongoing and insightful feedback that we have been able to include some of our recent achievements in this latest DSO Acceleration Strategy and Action Plan:
- More flexibility – we’ve procured over 700MW of Flexibility in 2023/24, helping release more capacity, faster.
- Connections progressed – we’ve unlocked 7GW of additional capacity through the technical limits programme and ramping of new connections, where more available capacity will be released over time.
- Data harnessed – we became the first network operator to publish full half-hourly smart meter datasets, modelling demand with greater accuracy.
- Local energy planning – our Local Energy Net Zero Accelerator (LENZA) tool is now giving dozens of our local authorities what they need to make well-informed planning decisions.
Additionally, we participated in the first year of Ofgem’s Distribution System Operations Output Delivery Incentive, which encourages licensees to optimise network use and explore flexible solutions to traditional network reinforcement. Our performance was assessed through stakeholder satisfaction survey, our team’s appearance before Ofgem’s performance panel and a detailed written report. The constructive feedback we received has laid a strong foundation for further progress and development.
Looking ahead to the next twelve months - and our plans outlined in this latest strategy and action plan - we're eager to hear your feedback as we continue refining our approach. Whether you have insights to share or thoughts on our future goals, we welcome your input. Our guiding principles of Smart-Fair-Now remain at the core of all we do and will help us to develop the energy system you have told us you need.
We're committed to building a smart flexible energy system that serves everyone fairly, especially vulnerable groups. With your continued support we're driving forward on a smarter, fitter and more sustainable path to net zero, and we look forward to engaging with you on these plans.
DSO Action Plan year 2
