Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to set a deadline for distribution network operators to transition to distribution system operators.

In our Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan, published with Ofgem last July, we set out our expectation that distribution network operators (DNOs) would transition to being distribution system operators (DSOs). This involves more active management of networks, ensuring they compete network requirements (so flexible technologies like storage are deployed where they are more cost effective than network reinforcement), and greater coordination between the transmission and distribution system operators to improve efficiency.

The Energy Networks Association published a report in December 2017 outlining progress to date and a roadmap for future work. The Government welcomes in particular the commitment from the network companies to open up network requirements to competition, and notes that some DNOs are already doing this. As different parts of the network face different levels of congestion, other DNOs are expected to follow suit as and when they need to overcome network constraints.