2024 - looking forward to a year of DSO delivery at SSEN Distribution

Here at SSEN Distribution, the ongoing development of our DSO function is challenging us, and it’s exciting us too.  The revolution that’s now underway in the electricity networks world is one which offers opportunity for all of us. 

We believe power networks can be smart – by using technology and flexibility to better serve all our customers. For them, this change must be fair, open, and accessible. We will build the future system from the bottom-up, leaving no-one behind. And it’s happening, right now. 

For us at SSEN, DSO isn’t just a vision for the future. We are already making the key decisions and investments to bring about change. 

We've just published our first stakeholder DSO Newsletter of 2024.  It will regularly chart our progress, and we’ll hold up to the light our achievements against our wider strategic goals. 

We’ll update you on how we are forecasting and planning for future energy needs, with the publication of our Distribution Network Options Assessment.  This will come in March, once we’ve completed a thorough consultation of our plans. It will be a transparent explanation of the flexibility options we’d like to pursue, with clear reasons being given for why particular choices have been made.

The marketplace in which flexible systems will operate is vital too. That’s why in the coming weeks, we’ll be laying out our vision for how that market will work, in a way that works for everyone who wants to participate, whether they’re homeowners, local authorities or businesses, big or small.

If the potential of what a DSO can deliver is to be maximised, then scale is critical. Over the coming few months, we’re also going to be working hard on how to make our plans more efficient, sustainable and user-friendly.

And at the end of the day, all these new flexible systems just need to work. They need to be fit-for-purpose, for customers and suppliers. So, we’ll be telling you about how we’re striving for ever greater transparency in our decision making, and how we’re working with our existing customers to improve the services they’re already using.

2023 brought much to be proud of; the launch of our Open Data Portal, the groundbreaking work with councils who have signed up to our LENZA tool to help develop their own net zero local energy plans. 2024 will see us build on these achievements and do the hard yards to build the net-zero network of the future.

Now we've set out our targets for the coming few months. I look forward to speaking to you again in March, when we’ll tell you more about our exciting and ambitious plans for next year.  

Finally, the newsletter is your invitation to have a conversation with us; I hope what you read encourages you to give us feedback on how we’re doing and where we could make further improvements.  

You can read more about SSEN's DSO project work here.