RP7 Stakeholder Consultation WEB - Flipbook - Page 26
4.2.3 Step 3: ‘Flexibility First’
Within RP6 the Utility Regulator
approved over £6m to allow us to
‘fast follow’ some of the successful
innovation projects in GB with a view
to transition them to business as usual
for RP7. We have been trialling various
smart technologies and customer
flexibility solutions over the past number
of years – click here to watch a video of
our Smart Asset Monitoring project.
Our RP6 innovation technologies
have delivered significant learning
to inform preparation for business
as usual implementation and we will
embed them into our business plan,
demonstrating significant customer
savings from the outset. Whilst we are
still working through the exact detail,
we have illustrated the various savings
in Figure 3.
Our flagship innovation project is
‘FLEX’ which creates local markets
where customers can offer demand or
generation response services to help
us manage constraints on the network –
the real life example from our FLEX trial
in Figure 9, demonstrates how effective
FLEX can be at managing power
flows. Managing constraints in this way
allows us to defer or avoid network
reinforcement. As we approach the end
of our first trial of FLEX, Figure 9 below
sets out the response we have received
to our first tender.
DEMAND
Figure 9 - Real life example of FLEX
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TIME
Typical Demand
Demand with Flexibilty
The RP7 period will be a time of
significant uncertainty as we continue
on the pathway to net zero. It is clear
that government policy will drive a
change in consumer behaviours,
however, the exact blend of LCTs
that will emerge and at what pace is
still uncertain. Whilst electrification
will play a key role in all pathways to
decarbonisation, the electricity network
will need to remain adaptable to the
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Northern Ireland Electricty Networks
evolving decarbonisation landscape
and the changing needs of consumers.
Our ‘Flexibility First’ approach,
whereby we will test the market
before committing to conventional
reinforcement, will allow us to defer
network investment where this is in
the best interest of our customers.
By doing so, we can ‘wait and see’
if demand and generation growth
actually materialises as forecast,
before triggering more costly network
reinforcement. This ultimately avoids
unnecessary investment and minimises
disruption to our customers, whilst
democratising the energy system.
However, it should be noted that the
flexibility market is still maturing and
as such conventional reinforcement
is likely to be required in a majority of
instances during RP7.
