Next steps on visibility of distributed generation connected to the GB distribution networks
Decision
Publication date
Industry sector
- Distribution Network
- Transmission Network
On Friday 9th August 2019, a power outage caused interruptions to over one million consumers’ electricity supply. Following this event, Ofgem opened an investigation into the power outage which resulted in nine specific and measurable actions. In August 2020, we published a call for evidence on distributed generation (DG) visibility connected to the GB distribution network.
In the responses we received, respondents agreed that there is a significant problem in limited DG visibility, and that there may be beneficial impacts on system resilience and Distribution System Operation (DSO) function delivery if this is improved. However, we found that, in general, industry did not have a clearly articulated set of use cases for DG data visibility; how this would inform decision-making; what data measurements and specifications would be required; the costs and benefits of enhancing DG visibility; or the required changes to existing governance.
This document sets out our findings, and next steps to improve DG visibility.