With the grid under increasing stress as a result of growing reliance on electricity and the introduction of more renewables technologies and electric vehicles, the role of the DSO is increasingly challenging. The risk of outage is increasing daily and carries a significant financial penalty. Shoring up or replacing parts of the system is expensive, time-consuming and adds to complexity.

USEF helps the DSO to mitigate risk and play a smarter role in the system. It delivers easier access to Prosumers’ flexible supply and demand by making their active participation in the grid possible. This can be used to alleviate grid stress and defer or avoid grid upgrades. It also encourages prosumer reliance on the grid by providing them with the opportunity to benefit financially. This reduces the likelihood of their defection as storage technologies become more readily-available, making self-balancing achievable.

USEF’s DSO Workstream has also assessed a range of existing EU DSO congestion management models that utilise flexibility. These can be found in the workstream’s final report.