Across Europe, day-ahead and real-time dispatch of distributed energy resources (DERs) remains largely in the pilot phase, with most activity confined to longer-term planning processes.
This is in part due to fragmented regulatory implementation across the different countries. This leads to difficulties in ensuring data access and standardisation.
However, in the UK, Electricity North West is already operationalising real-time flexibility at scale. Its work with real-time operational dispatch through Electron offers concrete insights into how DERs can become dependable tools for network operators – bringing together technology, markets, and regulation into a working, scalable system.
Paul George, DSO Commercial Lead at Electricity North West, recently joined an Electron webinar, with Jeremy Macfarland, Electron’s Head of Customer Success and Electron’s CCO Chris Broadhurst as moderator. They discussed the benefits and reasons behind the development of this capability.
As Chris shared: “Electricity North West are now using flexibility from DERs to handle real-time congestion on the grid. This is a real-world example now where DERs are showing up and providing value to the control room – and doing that in real time.”
For European system operators grappling with the “chicken-and-egg” problem of trust in DER performance through using new technologies, Electricity North West’s experience presents a breakthrough. Trust is being earned, operationally, every day.
Turning DERs into operational assets
The goal of Electricity North West’s operational dispatch model is straightforward: integrate DERs directly into how the network functions day to day. This means simplifying dispatch processes, ensuring responsiveness, and creating a system that both network operators and providers can depend on.
Using a flexibility market platform has enabled this simplification.
“ElectronConnect has helped simplify how Electricity North West can rely on DERs for operational uses. It was quite a disconnected process before,” says Chris.
“Now, we’re giving them a lever or a tool to reserve and activate megawatts through markets, to find the best, most reliable, and low-cost megawatts – and we’re doing that in near real time.”
This shift makes operational dispatch more than a technical upgrade. Instead of relying on siloed programs or fixed relationships with specific flexibility providers, Electricity North West can now access a competitive, diverse pool of flexibility across residential, commercial, and aggregated sources.
Creating direct operational value
Operational dispatch also directly supports Electricity North West in meeting critical regulatory metrics like customer interruptions and minutes lost.
“We have a range of network needs – it can be planned outages, unplanned outages, thermal constraints,” shares Paul. “We need to really quickly tap into and activate flexibility to help us reduce the number of interruptions on the network and reduce the amount of time customers might be off supply.”
Electricity North West’s platform can help enable this responsiveness across all parts of the network- extra high voltage (EHV), high voltage (HV), and low voltage (LV). No matter where the asset is located or what type of DER is involved – if it can help solve a grid problem, it can be activated.
“We’re quite agnostic to the part of the network and to the type of technology,” Paul continues. “We want to be inclusive – whether that’s large commercial assets or domestic flexibility through aggregators.”
Lowering barriers for flexibility providers
Crucially, operational dispatch therefore lowers the threshold for participation. The system is designed for utility efficiency and provider accessibility.
Chris noted: “Enabling access to more flexibility service providers (FSPs) means that, rather than relying on a single provider, Electricity North West can source flexibility from multiple providers who compete to provide the best possible service – which is ultimately going to give the best result to the network and to the end consumer.”
That sentiment was echoed by Jeremy, Head of Customer Success, who supports onboarding for FSPs at Electron.
“All these proactive measures taken by Electricity North West are being very well received by the FSPs,” he says. “We’ve been helping facilitate that onboarding process and dispatch signal integration. So far, it’s been going very well.”
The onboarding process, signal delivery, and meter data submission are now streamlined, making it easier for FSPs to participate and deliver real value back to the network.
A model Europe can learn from
As Europe considers how to scale flexibility from pilots to market implementation, Electricity North West’s operational dispatch offers a working model. It shows that real-time flexibility can be reliable, scalable, and economically efficient.
By building trust in DERs, simplifying access for providers, and embedding flexibility into real-time control room operations, Electricity North West is turning one of the industry’s biggest challenges into a practical success story.
“These are real-time opportunities that are emerging and are valuable to Electricity North West,” says Chris.
