Electricity North West has become the fifth of the six distribution network operators (DNOs) in Great Britain to join the Piclo Flex online marketplace on commercial basis.
Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) became the first to join in March 2019 after the completion of a government-sponsored trial of the flexibility marketplace that involved all six of the DNOs.
It was subsequently followed by UK Power Networks, Western Power Distribution (WPD) and SP Energy Networks (SPEN), meaning the only DNO now not signed up to the platform is Northern Powergrid.
Electricity North West (ENW) said it plans to launch its seventh round of auctions on Piclo Flex later this year, having already tendered for more than 70MW of flexibility services since 2018.
Lois Clark, commercial manager for distribution system operation at ENW, said: “This partnership demonstrates a key step in our ongoing investment in the key enablers of our people, technology, data and business capabilities that will help these markets to mature, providing greater visibility of network needs and simplifying coordination between all parties.
“We are committed to simplifying our approach to flexibility to encourage participation and facilitate our journey to net zero carbon in the North West and are excited to be working with Piclo to help us achieve these goals.”
Piclo chief executive and co-founder James Johnston said: “This stride forward by Electricity North West shows the tide is turning in favour of streamlined, transparent flexibility procurement and we are delighted to be collaborating with ENW in enabling their ambitions.
“Flexibility is the future and we are proud of the role Piclo is playing in enabling a smart, flexible and resilient energy system.”
Earlier this month, three of the DNOs – SSEN, SPEN and Northern Powergrid – announced they would join WPD in operating all of their flexibility tenders through a revamped version of the Flexible Power website developed by the company as part of an innovation project.
A spokesperson for Piclo said its platform is integrated with a variety of networks’ in-house tools, including Flexible Power. They said additional services are constantly being added and the company will make further announcements on this matter next year.