Flexibility Welcome to SP Energy Networks’ Flexibility pages where you will find all the information relating to the procurement of Flexibility Services. This includes our tenders, our current methodologies to select locations and how we value them, plus our contractual documentation. We're pleased to share that we'll shortly be opening up our next round of flexibility services tenders for our SP Manweb and SP Distribution licence areas. These Tenders will be for flexibility services for the period 2023 – 2028, and we’ll be publishing our exact service requirements in early August. We'll be using the Picloflex to facilitate the tenders, and are delighted to announce that flex providers can now register for company pre-qualification on the Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) from today. Click the link below to access the DPS and enter your company details: Piclo Flex We’d encourage all flex providers interested in our upcoming tender to register their company details in preparation for the competition in August. Have a question? Get in touch via flexibility@spenergynetworks.co.uk Flexible Networks & SPEN To meet our evolving customer needs, we are developing smarter, more flexible network solutions to help mitigate the need for traditional reinforcement and reduce costs for our customers. We recognise that resources connected to our networks could provide services to assist in key areas that have specific challenges during periods of network constraint. So we are exploring markets for flexibility with new and existing customers who are able and willing to control how much they generate or who can control their demand. Benefits Flexibility will: Reduce the need in some areas for costly, traditional reinforcement. Allow consumers to capitalise on the opportunities arising from a transition to a smarter grid and participate in the low carbon future. Assist Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to transition to Distribution System Operators (DSOs) allowing us to plan and operate our networks more dynamically to meet changing customer needs. Flexibility Services We will look to procure Flexibility Services through competitive tenders where possible. Responses from Flexibility providers will be used to: Identify the availability of flexibility resources in specific areas where flexibility could benefit the network Understand the capabilities and restrictions of these resources Evaluate the viability of using flexibility to meet network requirements. Useful Documents Valuing Flexibility Services Valuing Flexibility Services for the Distribution Network - January 2020 Flexibility Assessment Methodology Flexibility Assessment for Load Related Schemes - January 2020 Flexibility Services Bid Assessment Flexibility Services Bid Assessment Flexibility Tenders October 2019 Tender – now ended In October 2019, we issued our largest ever call for flexibility services in ten areas across our SPM and SPD licence areas. We required services during post-fault and outage conditions to support or restore our network at specific periods during 2020 to 2023. Invitation to Tender Documentation 'Invitation to Tender for the Provision of Flexibility Services' Letter Questions and Answers Part 1 - Invitation to Tender for the Provision of Flexibility Services Part 2 - Policies Part 3 - Draft Flexibility Services Agreement Part 4 - Flexibility Services ITT Supplier Questionnaire Locations Ten areas with a potential need for flexibility services were identified and published on the Picloflex platform. SP MANWEB Flintshire Ringway North Shropshire Newtown/Welshpool Crewe Carrington/Fiddlers Ferry SP DISTRIBUTION Broxburn Berwick Durie House Paulville After a successful pre-qualification period, with 80% of registered assets passing the prequalification stage, we were able to take eight of the ten locations to competitive tender. For the remaining two locations, an insufficient volume of providers met the pre-qualification criteria and we were therefore unable to progress to tender. Diagram and Tender Timeline Tender Results Following a comprehensive bid assessment process (including both technical and commercial tests) we have accepted, subject to contract, the following bids in the SP Manweb area: License Location Product Period 20/21 MW 21/22 MW 22/23 MW SPM Flint Post Fault Winter 4.18 4.73 5.23 SPM Flint Restore Summer 7.50 7.50 7.50 SPM Crewe Restore Summer 33.0 SPM Carrington Post Fault Winter 11.44 Total 11.68 12.23 57.17 Whilst our call had also included requests for flexibility services in our SPD license area, unfortunately due to insufficient capacity being offered for the entire service period required, we are unable to place contracts for these locations at this time. We are also unable to place contracts for reactive power for the same reason. The requirements tendered for plus the individual results for each of 10 locations are now included in the document below: Flexibility Tender - October 2019 Results We would welcome any feedback, comments or questions on our Flexibility Tenders, please contact us at : Flexibility@spenergynetworks.co.uk