Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN), following a competitive tendering process, has awarded Opus One Solutions the contract to develop and deploy two solutions to enable the testing of different flexibility market models. Opus One Solutions will be developing the market platform and coordination tools to support SSEN in delivering a smarter low-carbon energy network.

Increasingly consumers are shifting from merely using energy to producing, storing, balancing and selling energy back to the system. Flexibility and system coordination will have a critical role in the cost-effective transition to net zero, whereby low carbon technologies and solutions participate within a market on a level playing field.

SSEN has awarded Opus One Solutions the contract to develop and deploy two solutions to enable the testing of different flexibility market models. Opus One Solutions will deploy:

  • a Neutral Market Facilitator (NMF) platform for buyers and sellers of flexible electricity sources to register their requirements and capabilities;
  • and a Whole System Coordination (WSC) tool that integrates data from a variety of different sources to quantify the requirements for network flexibility across different timeframes.

The contract is part of the SSEN-led TRANSITION Project, which is testing potential approaches to managing an increasingly complex energy system.

The NMF and WSC tools will be used as part of a programme of market trials over the next 2-3 years to test and demonstrate the functionalities and requirements of a DSO (Distribution System Operator) and local flexibility markets. These trials will be used to inform a smarter flexible energy system for the future.

Brian Wann, TRANSITION Project Manager, said:

"Working with Opus One Solutions provides an exciting opportunity to trial and test flexibility and coordination solutions which will help shape how we can best meet energy demand. As part of TRANSITION, it will help in understanding and trialling approaches to energy system architecture and coordination. We are very pleased to be working with Opus One Solutions on this project."

Hisham Omara, VP of Strategic Growth at Opus One Solutions, said:

"We are thrilled to be working with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) to support their DNO to DSO transition through the deployment of flexibility market platform, whole system coordinator and neutral market facilitator. Opus One is committed to support SSEN in its journey towards building the necessary business as usual infrastructure to enable flexibility as they enter RIIO-ED2."

TRANSITION is a five-year project, launched in 2018, and was the first Network Innovation Competition (NIC) project where two DNOs (SSEN and Electricity North West Limited) worked together on a single project.