Bridging the Gap 2022

In 2020 we launched our first ever Future Energy Scenarios (FES) Bridging the Gap to net zero report. This work takes some of the key messages from FES each year and focuses not just on what could happen, but what needs to happen in the energy industry to reach net zero.

This autumn our third Bridging the Gap to Net Zero report will build on our 2021 peaks and troughs focus. We will be digging deeper into some of the dynamic peaks and troughs that present the greatest level of challenge to the ESO and wider energy system. And, we will be working closely with our industry colleagues once again to challenge and review the critical actions needed to ready GB’s energy system for high levels of renewables.

Bridging the Gap 2022 aims to join the dots between ESO activities, presenting a whole system view of the actions needed to get us on the path to net zero. 

- Becky Hart, ESO Strategy Manager

Looking into the detail and complexity of peaks and troughs

Bridging the Gap 2022 will build on industry discussions we had last time relating to the increasing complexity of managing renewable energy supplies and our energy system.

Read more about how the ESO has progressed its actions from Bridging the Gap 2021 across markets, technology and digitalisation workstreams and worked with industry to influence BEIS’s Smart Systems Flexibility Plan. 

We will do this by taking two, week-long snapshots of the system in the 2030s. One will show peak demand during a week of cold, still winter weather. Another week will include low demand and peak renewable supply. We’ll analyse the weeks, looking at different kinds of flexibility (Shape, Shift, Shed and Shimmy) needed from the perspectives of consumers, operations, markets, digitalisation and networks. We’ll identify what critical actions will be required from a whole system perspective in order to manage these two real-life situations and importantly what needs to happen in the short term to make sure these actions are possible.

After asking for external stakeholder feedback, we’ll summarise our findings in a report, which will include a timeline of what we see as a critical path for action over the coming years and launch the report early in the new year.

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If you have a specific question about Bridging the Gap, please get in touch via our dedicated email address: [email protected]