Web Portal Design and Development for National Grid Electricity Distribution
- Design and development of a self-serve portal with integration to real-time data to support the electricity network in the UK
- Carefully mapped out user journeys to ensure the application and utilisation of the self-serve portal is straightforward
- Direct integration with National Grid Electricity Distribution's network to allow users to connect their energy equipment
The Ambition
As the UK has a clear commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) had recognised the unprecedented changes to the way customers use and generate energy.
There was an increase in the levels of distributed renewable forms of electricity generation connecting to the network, such as solar, wind, and energy storage along with increasing levels of Low Carbon Technologies (LCT). Due to the increase in demand for electricity, the DNOs needed the ability to utilise excess energy from one network area to an area that has known constraints.
NGED wanted to empower customers to manage real-time energy flows and use technology, innovation and commercial arrangements to make optimal use of the existing network capacity.
What We Did
Working closely with NGED’s Systems Operator team, we designed and developed a self-serve web portal to enable customers to easily register their power equipment to the grid to proactively receive notification of flexibility power requirements.
The automation of this process ensures that energy consumption requirements can be met quickly without having to rely on staff to monitor and manage the applications for the flexible power initiative around-the-clock.
User Journeys
Before developing the self-serve portal, our dedicated National Grid Electricity Distribution Project Team worked closely with NGED’s Systems Operator team to determine what a typical user journey would look like for users who are wanting to apply to The Market Gateway portal.
With the flexible power scheme being a new service offering from NGED, the discovery phase identified that it was likely that users of the service would have queries about how the process works – including registering power equipment, signing a commercial contract and responding to the DNO’s flexible power requirements.
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Self-Serve Portal Development
With the user journeys mapped out, our development and design teams started to create the self-serve portal that incorporated a step-by-step application form to determine if the user’s equipment and availability matched the criteria for the Market Gateway portal.
The application stage was broken down into three stages; procurement, asset registration and trade opportunities.
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API Integration
During the development stage, we integrated NGED's API into the self-serve portal to enable real-time data from the Market Gateway portal to connect and feedback directly to the National Grid Electricity Distribution’s network.
This integration connects customers' power equipment to National Grid Electricity Distribution's network directly through the Market Gateway portal. This data is automated to generate a notification for NGED's internal team to inform them of new flexibility power.
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Real-time Data
The DNOs can offer a single point of information in respect of their flexible service requirements.
The Market Gateway integrates with the DNOs Flexible Power Portal to publish their flexibility requirements and provide details of the operational window that outlines the time of day and time of year the DNOs need flexibility services as well as forecast the total energy they anticipate needing within that window.
Users of the Market Gateway will have on-demand access to flexible locations, requirement data, procurement notices and documentation published by four of the UK’s DNOs.
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