SSEN secures huge increase in contracted flexibility volumes.

Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks Distribution has successfully completed two further rounds of bidding, meaning a total of over 700MW of Flexibility Services has been contracted during the past year. ?

Flexibility is key in areas where there are capacity constraints at certain times, or in certain circumstances. These new deals cover flexibility services in both SSEN’s central southern England and north of Scotland licence areas.

January and February 2024’s bidding rounds are now complete, resulting in an additional 433.6 MW of volume. This is equivalent to the electricity that could power more than 350,000 homes. ?

Flexibility services are a vital part of the transition to Net Zero, and are being used to support reinforcement of the network, and the acceleration of new connections.

In January, SSEN opened bidding window for the first nine Constraint Managed Zones for ‘Secure’ Services (which are those obtained to reduce load on the network ahead of when it’s expected to occur), and in all zones for ‘Restore’ and ‘Dynamic’ Services (which support the network after an outage).

In February, an additional ‘super’ zone was opened, covering parts of Reading and Hampshire.?

?? Catherine Winning , Flexibility Manager at SSEN:

“SSEN takes an efficient, and targeted approach to its procurement of Flexibility Services. With our effective Distribution Options Assessments giving us the vital information about where we need flexibility, we can work to secure it effectively.

?“Flexibility Services are a key part of our overall network plans, and we are looking to continue to expand where we procure it in the next year; more information on this is available in our procurement statement. It’s great to see the continued interest in our services, and we look forward to working with more providers, in the coming months." ?

Find out more

SSEN Distribution’s Procurement Statement can be found in the Flexibility Services Document Library.

The Distribution Networks Options Assessment outcome report can be found here.