NIA SSEN 0072 Demand Diversification Service for LMAs

Key Activities

The aim was to establish if Load Managed Areas (LMAs) can be removed by the introduction of Demand Diversification Services (DDS); where Flexibility Service Providers (FSPs) are incentivised to provide enduring demand diversification to areas of the network that are, or will be, constrained and at the same time enable consumers within LMAs to participate in the electricity market and transition to Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs) at their discretion. This will be achieved by detailed network analytics, technical trials, and simulation exercises that are designed to gather early feedback on the feasibility of DDS.

Expected Benefits

Confirmation that DDS is technically feasible throughthe current smart metering infrastructure.

Stakeholder engagement and gathered feedback,confirming sufficient interest to establish workablemarket mechanisms.

That enough FSPs join the simulation exercise,understandDDS, and are therefore willing to provide services whenthe need is operational rather than an innovation trial.

Recommendations for next steps; particularly, what isrequired before DDS can be launched as a Business asUsual (BaU) service.

Progress

Technical trials were descoped from the project because, they could not be completed during the essential winter demand peaks in 2024-25. The requirements for selecting trial participants proved too challenging in the time available. That is for consumers who:

Were in large enough clusters to see the impact of theirloads being scheduled;

Were in areas of the network with LV monitoring;

Had a schedulable load; and

For those with storage heaters, had the new five terminalSMETS2 smart meters.

With hindsight, this was always going to be a tough set of requirements to fully meet.

After confirming that FSPs were interested in participating in the new DDS models and validating, through desktop simulations, that the models were likely to provide the expected impact on network congestion, the project was brought to a close. Recommendations were prepared for the next project phase, which will look at requirements for commercial DDS products and launching DDS as a BaU service.