WPD Distribution Future Energy Scenarios 2021

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Project duration: May 2021 – December 2021

As the UK government ramps up ambitions to rapidly reduce carbon emissions on the way to a net zero 2050, the energy system is set to undergo intense change over the coming years. Regen is working with Western Power Distribution (WPD) to produce the 2021 Distribution Future Energy Scenarios (DFES) for each of their four licence areas, consulting with over 125 local authorities, project developers, asset owners and community energy groups to develop bottom-up, stakeholder-led regional future scenarios to inform network planning and investment at WPD.

This refreshes our previous analysis process for the 2020 DFES, which detailed three potential net zero scenarios for each of WPD’s four licence areas. The scenarios cover distribution-connected generation and storage, from solar and wind farms to gas-fired generation and batteries, alongside key sources of energy demand such as electric vehicles, heat pumps, new housing developments and hydrogen electrolysers.

As part of this year’s DFES, we hosted four webinars for local stakeholders in WPD’s licence areas to directly influence the models and assumptions that are made during the future energy analysis. The sessions provided the opportunity to ask questions, answer some of ours, and learn how to access and use the data once published. Recordings and slides from the events are available here.

The project outputs, including four licence area reports and interactive data maps, have been published in on WPDs website here.

Regen has also undertaken DFES assessments for Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks, covering their Southern England and North of Scotland licence areas; see here.

If you are interested in finding out more about this project with WPD or our wider work in future energy scenarios, please contact Jonty Haynes.

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