Regional Development Programmes (RDPs)

The South West of England is likely to play a big role in meeting the Government’s green energy targets because there is lots of renewable solar and wind generation in the area. But research showed that it is difficult to absorb that energy on the network. This RDP is analysing what the requirements and capabilities are needed in the area to overcome this challenge at the least cost to the consumer.

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This RDP is looking to extend the flexibility arrangements given to generation providers so that they apply for storage demand. This will enable storage projects to become part of the solution to network capacity issues, rather than capacity planning standards being a potential blocker to them.

This project seeks to allow energy storage, or other customers who can provide flexibility to the system, to participate in new whole system energy markets. It will also allow them to receive revenues for delivering services when the system requires flexibility to deliver capacity in constrained areas.

We are working with Western Power Distribution (WPD) on this project. It focuses on the transmission assets at the T-D boundary.

RDP battery energy storage paper

The aim of this project is to maximise the opportunities for more efficient deployment of distributed resources and reduce overall system costs for energy consumers.

The south-east coast area of England is where the project is focused as it is one of the most complex network areas in Europe. It has several interconnections to continental Europe, either currently in service or due to be commissioned, a nuclear power station, and a significant volume of renewable and traditional energy resources connected to the distribution network.

By unlocking more network capacity, reducing constraints and opening up new revenue streams for market participants, this project will enhance transmission and distribution systems coordination and control. This will create whole system efficiencies and provide new tools and resources to manage system constraints – ultimately reducing costs for customers.

UKPN MW Dispatch webinar – July 2021

South-east coast RDP technical report

Programme factsheet

Project initiation document

With SP Transmission and SP Distribution, we are working on this RDP which focusses on the south-west of Scotland. There is huge potential for renewable electricity generation in this area, but that requires extensive and costly network reinforcements to get the energy to where it is needed by conventional means.

We’re are looking at new ways to use technology and operational methods to provide cost efficient outcomes for the renewable developments in the region. For the ESO to utilise the full potential of the transmission network in the future in this area of Scotland, both transmission connected generation and distributed energy resources should compete on a fair and equitable basis for access to the network.

Therefore, new arrangements for the connection of developments to the network, and provision of constraint management services will be developed. This will maximise the operation and management of the transmission network in the future. This RDP will create the necessary frameworks to achieve this ambition.

There is a lot of potential for wind resources in the north-west of England. In Heysham, the grid supply point (GSP) has reached thermal capacity limit for reverse power flow, across the existing three Super Grid Transformers (SGTs). It has also reached its switchgear fault level design limit.

Heysham GSP has had around 564MW of distributed energy resources connect to the distribution network since last year. Installation of a new SGT was suggested to add more thermal capacity at the Heysham GSP. However, delivery of an SGT is often an expensive and time consuming solution. The operation of the SGT at full capacity would also be restricted by the existing switchgear’s fault level limitations.

This analyses the Heysham GSP and the distribution network behind to deliver the most economic solution for consumers.