Utility Week

8 | 7TH - 13TH FEBRUARY 2020 | UTILITY WEEK Utility of the Future: Business models and skills Future networks what's genuinely valuable and achievable and how it will slot into the RIIO-ED2 price control framework. But I wonder if the DNOs are thinking, 'what bit of the DSO agenda shall we invest in now?'. [Without clarity from Ofgem] it's a bit chicken and egg." Nevertheless, as he points out, the transition is mak- ing itself felt on the DNOs' corporate structures. "Many of our contact points in the DNOs have picked up new and huge responsibilities, such as head of † exibility, and they're actively recruiting their teams. It's an area of great interest and relevance, it's great to work with our customers and there's all to play for, for us and the whole industry." Progress at Northern Powergrid With no universally agreed deˆ nition of a DSO, the DNOs are free to deˆ ne their own. At Northern Powergrid, head of regulation and strategy Jim Cardwell identiˆ es three key parameters: managing a more complex connection landscape and acting as a catalyst for decarbonisation; interfacing more e' ectively with the electricity system operator (ESO) and sharing data that allows Northern Powergrid full visibility of what's on its network; and creating a "universal service o' ering", or consistency in connection processes across its operations and those of other DSOs. Against these criteria, Cardwell is conˆ dent that Northern Powergrid is making good progress. "We'd say we think we're already behaving like a DSO – only one organisation has operational responsibility for the grid in Yorkshire and the North East, and that's us. Increasingly, our focus is on † exibility and an active grid, which is syn- onymous with a DSO. We're actively managing distrib- uted energy resources, not passively. I'm not sure there's a point you pass when you say yesterday we weren't but now we are, but we feel we are now acting as a DSO." continued from previous page In terms of the ESO interface, Cardwell says that it needed to "have visibility on contracts between gen- erators and National Grid ESO in our territory. We will share data between networks, so that we can see what it does to the system – we don't want to pull in di' erent directions." Northern Powergrid has previously pointed out that the scale of distributed generation on its network – at 3.3 GW – means its contribution to the national grid is greater than Hinkley Point C's will be. At Western Power Distribution, DSO and future net- works manager Nigel Turvey can also list the company's achievements. "We are well down a path in terms of what we are trying to achieve. We pushed out our DSO strat- egy which describes the general direction, and we got it about right – we have more visibility in our control of the network, we're using third parties for † exibility. We've made signiˆ cant advances in the past 18 months in terms of † exibility procurement. It's a continuous process, but I think we're a long way down the road." He also describes sharing data with the ESO to facili- tate full visibility, and therefore control, of its network. "To an extent it is an issue, and we have worked with the ESO on it. For instance we ran a pilot in the South West jointly with the ESO looking at issues around vis- ibility. So we are building links between our systems, so that both sides get visibility. Historically, we haven't needed to do this, but as we get more generation on the networks, there is more need for this data." Open data needed Whatever shape the DSOs eventually take on, they will need to provide the data to support the new energy land- scape, to manage and balance the grid, but also to pro- vide "open data" that allows third party entrepreneurs to access the energy market. That could involve real-time readouts of consumption data and headroom at substa- "We've made signifi cant advances in the past 18 months in terms of fl exibility procurement. It's a continuous process, but I think we're a long way down the road." NIGEL TURVEY, DSO AND FUTURE NETWORKS FROM DNO TO DSO CENTRALISED GENERATION MODEL DISTRIBUTED GENERATION MODEL PV integration EV charging Active network management Power plant CHP connection Distribution system operators Wind connection Transmission Power plant Distribution system operators Transmission Homes Homes, demand-side participation Energy storage

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