by Andrew Roper
DSO Director
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks
Our DSO functions are coming of age, at a time when they’ve never been more important.
The next price control period (the terms to be settled within the next year) will see us deliver five more years of rapid electrification – while ensuring value for money for consumers and maximum efficiency.
The purpose of the third year of our DSO Accelerator Programme has been to follow through on our leadership and intent established in previous years, and to deliver tangible outcomes. We’re now doing so, as the need to deliver the maximum possible efficiency out of the current network comes into the sharpest focus.
We’ve strengthened confidence in our network data through our Data Portal, scaled flexibility markets as a core tool, and accelerated connections. This has unlocked capacity and enabled earlier connection of low‑carbon generation while improving also whole‑system coordination.
We’ve embedded key processes into business as usual, with our DSO now operating with greater maturity, consistency and transparency, delivering benefits for network efficiency, system operation and for customer outcomes.
And there’s much more to come. During this year and next, we’ll focus on maximising the value of these capabilities while preparing for the next price control. We’ll further scale flexibility, we’ll do more to accelerate connections, we’ll deepen stakeholder engagement, and we’ll advance digital and operational capabilities to support a more decentralised, data‑driven system.
And while we continue to deliver, we’ll continue to listen very closely to you – our stakeholders.
This Action Plan sets out how we will deliver against our commitments, continuing to maximise financial, environmental and system benefits while maintaining transparency, trust and accountability. We’ll share more on what we’re planning to deliver and how you can help shape our progress in an upcoming webinar this Autumn.
We look forward to working together with you over the next two years.