Utility Week

30 | JULY 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Event Don't interrupt me What new pressures on reliability and resilience will tomorrow's net zero energy system create? Denise Chevin posed the question to participants at a recent Utility Week roundtable in association with S&C Electric. T ransformation of the UK energy system is gathering pace with more decentral- ised power and an increasing reliance on electricity to heat homes and power trans- port. At the same time, climate change is bringing more unpredictable weather. But what does providing reliability and resilience mean to network operators, regu- lators and – most importantly – customers, both now and in a future energy system? Net- work operators, innovators and regulatory experts came together with representatives from S&C Electric to discuss this important topic at a Utility Week roundtable. These are the key themes that emerged. Unmanaged flexibility is a new risk to the system The way the UK system is structured today is a product of the industrial revolution, and as we go through the energy revolution it will look very different in the near future. That was the view of participants, who were concerned that the public did not have a full picture of the changes coming down the line. "There's going to be a lot of flexibility, a lot of customers who work with us by sell- ing energy and services back to us, lots more options to get involved in the energy mix, and more options for us to run a more flex- ible network, to provide more capacity out of existing networks," was how one network participant described it. This would bring challenges and complexity to the network and its ageing assets, some of which are 100 years old. It was agreed that unmanaged flexibility is a risk for the system. Another attendee noted: "We'll see a lot more demand-related faults on the system than we've seen before, which at the moment is very rare in most net- works. I think we'll see various new failure modes emerging, ones we've not had to deal with before – failure to deliver flexibility ser- vices, communication systems going down, etc. So we'll need to be ahead of the game in terms of understanding these new failure modes, and making sure that we can deal with them at scale." It was also thought that the current regu- latory framework was not set up to deliver on this and that changes were likely to be needed in order to maximise future benefits. Short interruptions will present a bigger reliability challenge Network operators made the point that cus- tomers are increasingly concerned about short interruptions such as brief power cuts, which they felt were not acceptable in the 21st century. Certainly, it was felt that net- works would need to reduce interruptions to meet the changed expectations that had come in the wake of the pandemic, which has led to more people working from home and created a greater reliance on a reliable supply. One attendee noted that customers' number one concern was "repeat interrup- tions", including short interruptions. "You see Ofgem rightly responding to this by look- ing at standards and the value of short inter- ruptions," he added. It was felt that technology would eventu- ally provide a future where networks would be aware of every fault before it happens and that DNOs would be able to make a proactive decision on what action to take regarding an impending fault, rather than being reactive. While there was consensus that more could be done to monitor the network to enable faults to be predicted, it was also felt that more needed to be made of the data collected. "A lot of people talk about data, but it's a social asset, and it should be for the good of that community. But we do need better data as network operators," said an innovation specialist. Another participant pointed to end user data as being critical. "Understanding what consumers really value when it comes to using energy is going to be key." We need to balance reliability and resilience with affordability The problem, our guests said, was that while some in society would have their own in- built resilience, there would be others who would not be able to afford behind-the-meter resilience solutions like batteries. One guest noted: "About six million people are now behind in their household bills. Solutions will have to be cost effective so as not to exacerbate this affordability challenge." "Ultimately, we're conflicted by the fact that the system is changing, the sources of energy are changing. We're moving to lots of decentralised sources, and we've got to adapt to that." Differing expectations and problems around affordability made one participant question whether the same level of reliability would need to be delivered to everyone. "If you can attribute value to better reliability,

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