Regional Development Programmes

We’re collaborating with National Energy System Operation (NESO) to unlock more network capacity and connect more generators at lowest cost.

About Regional Development Programmes (RDP)

RDPs are projects that identify where reinforcements are preventing customers from connecting to the network and aim to provide tools and resources to help.

This allows Distributed Energy Resources (DERs) to connect faster, ahead of reinforcement which, in some cases, is planned for 10+ years. This whole-systems approach requires collaboration between UK Power Networks and National Energy System Operator (NESO).

This approach to allowing DERs to connect early will reduce customer costs by better managing the clear dependencies between the Transmission and Distribution Network and assisting the journey to the UK becoming Net Zero by 2050.

UK Power Networks has two RDP areas, the Eastern area and the South East. Both networks face challenges with transmission network upgrades due as late as 2030 and beyond. Drivers for the transmission reinforcement include large offshore wind and nuclear generation planned in the East and interconnectors in the South East.

South East Coast RDPs

MW Dispatch RDP solution

UK Power Networks has been collaborating with NESO to implement a Megawatt (MW) Dispatch service in the SPN network.

Through coordination and data exchange with our control room, the project will enable NESO to instruct DER units to reduce their output at times of system constraint, while our DSO dispatches the generators.

This solution enables customers to receive constraint payments for the electricity they would have otherwise generated. This will, in turn, provide a cheaper alternative to the existing constraint management process used within the balancing mechanism, helping to reduce costs for consumers.

Customers are currently being onboarded to participate in this service, which will be further developed to include other dispatch scenarios.
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Progress to date

Following the MW Dispatch Service Terms being finalised, we have been registering customers for the service through NESO’s Single Market Platform.

To register, you will need to have the ‘Control and Visibility’ clause in your Connection Offer and all of the key information (i.e. the list of information found in the Participation Guide in Appendix 4). Registration can take a few months and we are aiming for the service to be in operation in summer 2024.

We reached a major milestone of launching our technical solution in March this year. This means all the systems and integrations between NESO and UKPN are completed to make way for the launch of service.

In July, we onboarded and tested the technical solution with a customer.

Next steps

We are currently undertaking the operational trial of the service, which will be shortly followed by the Service Launch and real dispatch of DERs.

If you have any queries. Please contact UK Power Networks at mwdispatchservice@ukpowernetworks.co.uk or the NESO’s Markets Team at Commercial.Operation@nationalgrideso.com.

Register here

Dispatch API Specification now available

In line with customer feedback, we have published a simpler, more user-friendly version of the Dispatch Application Programming Interface (API) Specification document.

Covering both MW Dispatch and Flexibility Services, this document serves as a comprehensive guide for developers, outlining the functionalities, endpoints, request and response formats, and other technical details of the dispatch interface.

Read more at the button below, or in the documents section at the bottom of the page.

If you have any queries or feedback on this specification, please contact UK Power Networks at mwdispatchservice@ukpowernetworks.co.uk or flexibility@ukpowernetworks.co.uk.

Download Dispatch API Specification

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South East Coast RDPs

N-3 solution

In the context of RDP, an N-3 Operational Tripping Scheme (OTS) is a mechanism to ensure that the transmission network remains within its safe limits during an N-3 event.

An N-3 event occurs when a ‘double circuit fault’ on the transmission network takes place while a transmission circuit is under maintenance. This is considered to be a once-in-a-hundred-year event. The N-3 Operational tripping scheme can disconnect DERs feeding into the impacted part of the transmission network within 30 seconds of the N-3 event.

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