Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for the electricity network that powers everyday life for 8 million people across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire has established its Distribution System Operation (DSO) Review Panel.
The panel brings together experts in energy, regulation and policy who will scrutinise Northern Powergrid’s ‘flexibility first’ approach to enabling regional decarbonisation.
Led by chair, Jo Coleman, the DSO Review Panel will provide independent oversight and scrutiny of Northern Powergrid’s ‘flexibility first’ approach to network investment and decision making, providing constructive challenge and recommendations on the network operator’s processes for constraint identification, through flexibility pricing, to the assessment of options to resolve network needs. It will also examine how Northern Powergrid reports on its processes and outputs to ensure visibility and transparency.
Jo Coleman, chair of the newly established panel said, “I am delighted that recruitment of the panel members is now complete. Together, they bring a wealth of experience and expertise relevant to network investment and flexibility decision making. We held our first full DSO Review Panel meeting at the start of this month and we're looking forward to working together to ensure the best interests of customers are met both now and in the future.”
Paul Glendinning, Northern Powergrid’s Director of Energy Systems said: “Our Energy Systems directorate is delivering DSO functions, to accelerate the drive towards regional decarbonisation. This involves developing a smarter network and enhancing the way that we use data and collaborate with network users to operate our network more efficiently.
“A key part of this is deploying flexibility services to address network constraints wherever possible. This involves us incentivising customers to be flexible with their electricity usage to maximise network capacity and reduce the need for conventional and more costly network reinforcement.
“To achieve this, we will need to develop an active market for flexibility services in our region, where potential providers can have the confidence in our processes and decision-making frameworks to participate at scale.
“The DSO review panel will provide independent oversight and scrutiny of our 'flexibility first' approach to network investment and decision-making, so that we can ensure our approach is just, inclusive and that no customers are left behind.”
Find out more about Northern Powergrid’s independent DSO Review Panel at www.northernpowergrid.com/dso-review-panel
The network operator is currently seeking feedback to inform its DSO Implementation Plan which will be launched this Spring. To read about Northern Powergrid’s plans to enable decarbonisation in the region through distribution system operation and comment on its plans, visit www.northernpowergrid.com/downloads/59324.
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