A very happy new year to you from the team at Piclo!
2021 was a momentous and record breaking year for DSO flexibility markets, and the same goes for Piclo! Already, 2022 is gearing up to be an exciting year with DSO flexibility competitions from SP Energy Networks, Electricity North West, and UK Power Networks all open on Piclo Flex for Flex Service Providers to win contracts for.
Yet ahead of kicking off an exciting 2022, here is our year in summary…
DSO flexibility
In January, Northern Ireland Electricity Networks hosted their first-ever flexibility competitions. This competition series marked an important milestone for NIE Networks in their transition to Distribution System Operators (representing 15% of all customers in Northern Ireland). Read our blog here.
During the Spring wave of competitions:
- SP Energy Networks accepted 555MW of flexibility contracts
- UK Power Networks awarded £30m worth of flexibility contracts
Throughout the year, we hosted three flex provider roundtables focusing on qualification, bidding and short-term DSO markets. View our latest presentation.
Current competitions
There are opportunities to earn revenue and win flexibility service contracts on Piclo Flex now! Be a part of our journey towards a flexible future and register and qualify your assets now!
SP Energy Networks:
- Qualification closes: 21st January
- Competitions open: 24th - 28th January
Electricity North West:
- Qualification closes: 21st January
- Competitions open: 7th - 18th February
Register and qualify now via https://picloflex.com
Investment
In May, Piclo closed its Series A funding round securing £4.7m investment from Mott MacDonald Ventures, Clean Growth Fund and Green Angel Syndicate. Read the press release.
People
We started the year with 17 Piclonauts and finished the year with 33, doubling in size! We’ll be continuing to grow much more in 2022 - check out our latest job opportunities!
In October, we were delighted to appoint Stephanie Hazell as Piclo’s latest Board Member and Seed Investor Director with an impressive track record across the energy sector, including Group Director of Strategy and Corporate Development at National Grid. Read the press release.
Meet the team who are developing Piclo into a multi-market platform with our latest blog.
Product, Platform & Projects
Automation and Piclo Flex: In February, we released our first API. Automation via APIs will be an important part of the future of flexibility markets and the Asset APIs used to optimise asset uploading and bidding for Flex Providers.
Operations and settlement: 2022 will see Piclo Flex offering an end-to-end flexibility service, with operations and settlement as a key feature of this. In preparation in 2021, we built out a new Ops and Settlement team at Piclo to research, design and develop this exciting new part of our service. Want to chat to us about this? Email hello@piclo.energy
System Operator profiles: In October, Piclo launched its re-freshed website introducing System Operator profile pages for a directory of the latest information on flexibility opportunities. Visit our directory.
Project Transition/LEO: In November, we reached an exciting milestone of having the first set of DSO flexibility competitions uploaded to the platform via API. As part of Project LEO, Piclo has been working on API integrations alongside Scottish and Southern Energy Networks (SSEN) Neutral Market Facilitator.
Piclo Exchange: In November, Piclo Exchange launched as part of the BEIS FleX Exchange project. Working alongside National Grid ESO, we created a secondary trading marketplace where Capacity Market Providers can buy and sell existing contracts from other qualified users. Read our blog series.
Industry
In July, Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy with Ofgem recognised flexibility as key enabler of the net-zero transition. Read Co-founder & CEO James Johnston’s response on New Power.
In August, we featured on The Engineer with our piece on ‘How EVs will drive the flexibility market’ by James Johnston. With 15% of new cars in the UK now electric, the EV revolution is expected to jumpstart the flexibility revolution. Read our thought-leadership piece.
In December, E.DSO awarded Piclo Flex for ‘Market Facilitation’ at the 1st ever Digital DSO Power Award. With 27 international applications assessed by 7 jury members, Piclo was awarded best for Market Facilitation, celebrating how our marketplace has been influential in the shaping role of DSOs. Read the press release.
Throughout the year we attended and spoke at some impactful events, particular highlights included involvement at Solar & Storage Live, Mott MacDonald’s Carbon Crunch event, National Grid’s Global Youth Engineer Climate Conference and COP26!
