Electricity North West is planning for this significant change with its first annual Distribution Future Electricity Scenarios and Regional Insights (DFES) report which will help plan for the future and support local economic development and the transition to a low carbon future.
The North West is a diverse region with varied energy needs from urban Manchester to rural Cumbria and the new forecast uses intelligent tools for projecting electricity demand scenarios based on local information and conditions down to postcode level, which will help understand the differing energy needs and support the energy evolution.
Steve Cox, engineering and technical director for Electricity North West, said: “Launching our new DFES report is a game changer which will allow us to take our commitment to transforming into a smarter more flexible power network for the benefit of our customers to the next level.
“The future of energy in the North West has never been so important so we’re calling on local businesses and key stakeholders to join us and help support the energy evolution to help reduce fuel poverty, keep costs down and embrace digitalisation and new technology.
“While the nature and pace of change in the North West cannot be predicted with certainty for our diverse customer needs, it is vital that we take the lead in identifying themes and priorities so everyone in our region can face the future with confidence. We are certain that this new DFES report will help customers and key stakeholders and businesses plan for the future.”
Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham said: “I welcome the opportunities that this report brings to stimulate carbon reduction and help meet our ambition of carbon neutrality by 2038; how we manage our future energy supply to match our future demand has a key role to play in this.
“Greater demand for electricity, as a result of more electric vehicles and heating, will create challenges for our future energy system. We need to take a view across the whole system, which is already undergoing radical change towards greater decarbonisation, decentralisation and digitalisation; this report helps us to do this.
“To achieve our ambitions, we need to increase energy efficiency in our buildings as well as generate and store more low carbon energy locally to better manage supply and demand across the whole system.
“We need a city region wide approach to achieving our aims and I’m calling upon businesses, communities and stakeholders to take action now and be part of Greater Manchester’s plans.”
The annual publication of the DFES report is part of Electricity North West’s Distribution Systems Operator (DSO) strategy Powering the North West’s Future and key stakeholders can contribute to the annual energy forecast by contacting development.plans@enwl.co.uk.
