Northern Powergrid announces milestone step in local energy independence

The Community DSO project aims to enable communities to pursue their own decarbonisation agenda and have greater control over their own energy and assets. This will strengthen local energy independence and incentives for local decarbonisation, delivering cost and carbon savings. 

The first Community DSO network trial has been awarded to the Condor Consortium, led by Electric Places CIC.

The Condor Consortium is a pioneering effort to unlock low voltage (LV) flexibility through innovative solutions in energy network management, demand-side flexibility, energy markets, and customer inclusion.

The collaboration involves several key partners, including SMPnet, NODES, Cleanwatts, ev.energy, Energise Barnsley, Whitley Bay Big Local and Knaresborough Community Energy. 

On the project, Paul Glendinning, Director of Energy Systems at Northern Powergrid said:

“This project aims to simplify and encourage decarbonisation in local communities; minimising the barriers and maximising the incentives.

“It is a bold, yet achievable, innovation project and one that will see modifications to DNO’s roles; becoming a responsive facilitator of customers’ needs.

“Community DSO has the potential to create financial and carbon benefits for customers and communities and unlock new network capacity.”

The outputs of this project will provide a foundation for communities to adopt the Community DSO approach easily and at scale, as well as distributing industry insight and understanding about the effectiveness and performance of this approach.

Peter Stevens, Senior Project Manager at Electric Places said:

“Electric Places (Electric Corby Community Interest Company) are delighted to sign this contract with Northern PowerGrid to develop and trial a truly innovative and exciting new approach to community energy.

“Having worked with our consortium partners (NODES, SMPnet, CleanWatts, ev.energy, Energise Barnsley, Whitley Bay and Knaresborough communities) over the past year on our proposal we believe this project will lead the way for regulatory and market change that enables communities to generate their own clean renewable energy locally and manage their own consumption within grid constraints, making energy bills affordable for all their residents.

“Sharing energy responsibly is at the heart the project, helping communities be environmentally responsible and leave a clean legacy for their future generations.”

Commenting on the project, Jeremy Harrison, Senior Consultant at LCP Delta said:

“We are delighted that the Community DSO project has reached this significant milestone.

“We look forward to working with The Condor Consortium in delivering the first trial to demonstrate how energy communities can work with network operators to address the challenges of the energy transition, providing more affordable, secure and sustainable energy supplies.”

Sarah Sheehy, Senior Consultant at TNEI added:

“We’re thrilled that the contract to deliver the first physical trial of the Community DSO project has been awarded.

“This marks a significant milestone in advancing the concept and exploring its real-world benefits for local communities and the energy network.

 “Our team are excited that this next phase of the project will soon be underway, demonstrating the technical capabilities and the value a Community DSO can bring to a more sustainable and flexible energy future.”

The Community DSO project will develop and trial different approaches to identify how communities and local stakeholders can best work together, with their local DNO, to deploy Smart Local Energy Systems. Trials will take place in four local communities encompassing rural and urban networks.