The National Grid Distribution System Operator (DSO) has announced that its improved outage planning has successfully reduced curtailment by 450GWh between April and September 2025. This reduction represents a 20% decrease compared to the curtailment needed for maintenance and upgrades over the previous year, surpassing the organisation’s April 2025 target of cutting annual curtailment during planned outages by 300GWh.
Curtailment requires local generators to reduce output to allow engineers to conduct maintenance and upgrades safely. While essential, it necessitates importing power from more distant sources to maintain supply to homes and businesses. By refining its outage modelling, National Grid DSO has been able to precisely target curtailment, allowing more local, low-carbon generation to remain active for extended periods. This strategy not only supports affordability but also aids in decarbonisation efforts for National Grid Electricity Distribution customers.
“Beating our target is great news for local energy generators across our region, and points towards continued opportunities for growth,” Helen Sawdon, Head of Operations at National Grid DSO, commented. “Keeping our energy system safe and reliable naturally requires us to take some of our network equipment out of service temporarily while we undertake maintenance and upgrades.
“By focusing on how we model network outages, we can precisely target the curtailment to exactly where and when it’s needed. This keeps power flowing for longer – particularly from local low carbon providers who are helping to deliver more affordable power through our flexibility market, lowering both customer bills and carbon emissions at the same time.
“The less we curtail our customers, the more attractive it is for energy producers to connect into the system. This increases market competition that lowers energy costs and moves us towards our vision of abundant locally generated, clean and affordable energy powering the communities and businesses we serve.”
