Utility Week

22 | 5TH - 11TH OCTOBER 2018 | UTILITY WEEK Operations & Assets Analysis Worlds of difference The ENA has published its future 'world' scenarios to feed in to government thinking on how best to transform network companies into distribution network operators. Tom Grimwood reports. T he shi to a distribution system opera- tor (DSO) model for distribution net- work operators (DNOs) has been in the works for a number of years. DNOs have been busy developing, trialling and sometimes even rolling out a ra of new technologies, systems and markets that will be required for this radical transformation. The transition will see DNOs move from a passive "fit and forget" approach to the man- agement of their networks to a more active role in which new sources of local flexibil- ity – distributed generation, demand-side response and storage – are deployed to deal with congestion and constraints. In doing so, they hope to save billions of pounds for consumers by delaying, or avoid- ing entirely, the expensive upgrades that would otherwise be necessary to accommo- date a growing volume of intermittent renew- ables on the power grid. A government-commissioned report by Imperial College London concluded that a smarter, more flexible power grid could reduce whole-system costs by between £17 billion and £40 billion by 2050. But there are multiple ways in which this model could be achieved. As yet, there is no plan for the overall structure of the electric- ity system and the relationships between its participants. How will the constituent parts be fitted together to form a coherent whole? Over the summer, the Energy Networks Association (ENA) published its Future Worlds consultation as part of its efforts to come up with a blueprint, outlining five pos- sible options for stakeholders. What next? The consultation is part of the ENA's Open Networks project chaired by Western Power Distribution network strategy and innova- tion manager Nigel Turvey. "It's really try- ing to look forward in terms of the potential ways markets could be organised to allow access to all of the network companies to the flexibility that is out there," he explains. "It's trying to look at the whole range of options; trying to understand what that would mean for different players in the market; trying to understand the com- plexity that might be involved in delivering different models." The consultation closed to responses on 25 September. Turvey says its findings will continued overleaf "Ultimately it won't be networks that decide what we go for… It will be a decision that Ofgem will need to make in consultation with BEIS." Randolph Brazier, ENA head of innovation and development "We're trying to look at the whole range of options; trying to understand what that would mean for different players in the market." Nigel Turvey,a WPD network strat- egy and innovation manager and chair of the ENA's Open Networks

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