Terms and definitions
Aggregators: A new type of energy service provider which can increase or moderate the electricity consumption according to the total electricity demand on the grid.
Agile: Methodology and way of working based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organising cross-functional terms.
API: Application programming interface: a computing interface that defines code interactions between different software platforms.
Artificial Intelligence (AI): Development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision making and translation between languages.
CEG: Customer Engagement Group.
Channel: A digital medium (website, mobile, Chatbot) by which to consume content, engage with a brand and/or complete a transaction.
CMZ: Constraint Management Zone. These zones make use of technologies providing flexibility to alleviate network constraints, deploying them as an alternative to traditional network reinforcement in the management of peak demand.
Consumer: Energy consumers, meaning wider users of network services including business and domestic customers that pay for their network use through energy bills.
Customer: An individual, business, generator or flexibility service provider that is connected to, or seeks to connect to SSEN's electricity distribution network.
Decarbonisation: Reducing the carbon intensity in terms of emissions per unit of electricity generated.
Data Communications Company (DDC): A new smart meter communications infrastructure that will link energy suppliers to smart meters via a secure wireless network.
Data triage: Systematically find issues which should inhibit open data, identify the 'least impact' mitigation technique(s) and make the process transparent.
Digital: Describes the dominant use of the latest digital technologies to improve organisational processes, improve interactions between people, organisations and things, or make new business models possible.
Digitalisation: The use of digital technologies to change a business model and provide new revenue and value-producing opportunities; it is the process of moving to a digital business.
Digital System Map/ Digital Twin: A digital representation of a real world entity or system.
Distributed Energy Resources (DER): Any resource on the distribution system that produces or stores electricity. This can include distributed generation, storage, heat pumps and electric vehicles as well as other technologies.
Distribution Network Operator (DNO): The distribution system is a network or wires, transporting electricity from the transmission system or distribution connected generation to domestic, commercial and industrial electricity consumers.
Distribution System Operator (DSO): Securely operates and developed an active distribution system compromising networks, demand, generation and other flexible distributed energy resources (DER).
DSAP: Digital Strategy Action Plan.
Ecosystem: Connection of people, processes, companies, data and things that share the use of digital platforms. Participants in an ecosystem interact with each other to create and exchange sustainable value.
RIIO-ED1 and RIIO-ED2: Refers to Ofgem's RIIO-ED1 and RIIO-ED2, which is Ofgem's electricity distribution price control model for network regulation (Revenue = Incentives + Innovation + Outputs).
Electricity System Operator (ESO): Supply and demand are balanced second by second and in the longer term and that power flows across the network safely and reliably.
ENA DWG: Energy Networks Association Data Working Group.
EV: Electric Vehicles
Flexr: Flexr is a DNO data provision and standardisation service from ElectraLink that will connect to the data held by all six DNOs and their DER customers.
Fuel Poor: A fuel poor household is defined as one that needs to spend 10% or more of their household income on all fuel use in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime.
GIS: Geographical Information System: computer based visualisation of spatial and geographic data.
Independent Connection Providers (ICPs): An independent connections provider not affiliated to a distribution network operator.
Independent Distribution Network Operators (IDNO): Independent Distribution Network Operators (IDNOs) develop, operate and maintain local electricity distribution networks.
Internet of Things (IoT): IoT refers to a vast network of devices connected to the internet with the promise to enhance real-time customer experience and unlock new value from data.
Lean Six Sigma: Continuous improvement methodology and tools for business problem solving and process improvement.
Long Term Development Statement: A document that sets out the use and likely development of the distribution network and the distribution network operator's plans for modifying the distribution system.
Low Carbon Technologies (LCT): Processes or technologies that produce power with substantially lower amounts of carbon dioxide emissions than is emitted from conventional fossil fuel power generation.
Low Voltage (LV): This refers to voltages up to, but not including, 1kV.
Machine Learning: Machine learning is an area of artificial intelligence concerned with developing techniques that allow machines to learn.
MEDA: Modernising Energy Data Access: UK Government competition to enable energy data to be open-sourced for the benefit of society.
Metadata: Data that describes other data. It helps organise, find and understand data.
Network Asset Risk Metric (NARM): NARM is defined by Ofgem as the relative reduction of long-term monetised network asset risk. It will be used to justify funding for, and to set the outputs of, asset management work.
Net Zero emissions: Any emissions would be balanced by schemes to offset an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, such as planting trees or using technology like carbon capture and storage.
Neutral Market Facilitator (NMF): The Neutral Market Facilitator (NMF) will provide a market for trading the use of Distributed Energy Resources (DERs).
Open Data: Data in machine readable format that can be freely used, shared and built on by anyone, anywhere, for any purpose.
Platform: Series of cloud based technologies that offer pre-configured solutions to common business processes together with a flexible way to extend and build new processes to support your own requirements.
Priority Services Register (PSR): A register for all customers in an electricity distribution area that are of pensionable age, have a disability, are chronically sick, require special communication needs, depend on electricity for medical reasons, have children under the age of five in the household or require certain information and advice about supply interruptions.
PSA+: Power System Analysis.
PSTN: Public Switched Telephone Network.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is a style of software design where services are provided to the other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network.
SCADA: Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition.
SSEN: Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks.
Transmission Owner (TO): Companies which hold transmission owner licenses.
Vulnerable Consumer: Significantly less able than a typical consumer to protect or represent their own interests; and/or significantly more likely to experience detriment, or for that detriment to be more substantial.