Scaling up DSO Capabilities using Gridex

Project overview

Serving one of New Zealand's fastest-growing regions, Counties Energy is reimagining the role of the electricity network by evolving from a traditional network operator into a Distribution System Operator (DSO). This transformation is enabling a more flexible and customer-focused approach to managing energy demand and supporting the growing uptake of electric vehicles, rooftop solar, batteries, and other distributed energy resources. By combining digital innovation with active customer participation, Counties Energy is unlocking greater value from existing network infrastructure while helping meet the region's changing energy needs.

At the centre of this evolution is Gridex, Counties Energy's DSO orchestration platform. Acting as the intelligence layer between the network, customers, energy assets, and market participants, Gridex coordinates flexible resources such as solar systems, batteries, electric vehicles, and hot water systems. This allows network capacity to be managed dynamically, improving asset utilisation, enabling more flexible connections, and reducing the need for traditional infrastructure investment.

Gridex has been built as a cost-effective platform for local network requirements while aligning with internationally recognised standards. It has achieved CSIP-AUS Utility Server certification, helping ensure energy technologies can communicate securely and consistently across the energy ecosystem.

The Karaka Harbourside Smart Energy Neighbourhood pilot, delivered in partnership with EECA, is also part of our broader DSO programme. Through real-world trials and demand flexibility programmes, the project is demonstrating how smart technologies can reduce peak demand, improve affordability, and strengthen network resilience without compromising customer experience.

Together, these initiatives showcase a practical and scalable pathway for a more flexible, efficient, and customer-centric electricity future.

Innovation challenge or opportunity

This project addresses a fundamental challenge facing the energy sector: how to create an electricity system that can scale for the future while keeping energy affordable, reliable, and accessible. As electrification accelerates and customer-owned technologies become increasingly common, networks need new operating models that can accommodate growth without continually building more infrastructure.

The opportunity lies in moving beyond a network designed around peak demand to one that dynamically orchestrates energy resources across homes, businesses, and communities. Through DSO capabilities such as Gridex, Counties Energy is exploring how a standards-based platform-based approach can enable greater visibility, coordination, and participation across the energy ecosystem, creating the foundations for a more connected and responsive electricity system.

By bringing together customers, distributed energy resources, retailers, aggregators, and network operations, the project demonstrates how flexibility can become an integral part of the future energy landscape. It provides a pathway for integrating increasing volumes of electrification and emerging technologies while maintaining network performance and customer outcomes. Beyond solving a local challenge, the project is helping shape a scalable model for the future of energy, where digital platforms, customer participation, and coordinated flexibility work together to support a more resilient, efficient, and sustainable electricity system.

Desired outcomes and customer benefits

Business outcomes expected include:

Improved utilisation of existing network infrastructure through the active orchestration of flexible demand and distributed energy resources.
Deferral or avoidance of traditional network augmentation by unlocking flexibility as a scalable network resource.
Increased visibility and control of network constraints, enabling more efficient operational and investment decisions.
Validation of the Distribution System Operator (DSO) model through real-world deployment and customer participation.
Creation of a scalable platform and operating model capable of supporting growing electrification and distributed energy resource adoption across the network.
Strengthened industry collaboration by enabling participation from customers, retailers, aggregators, and emerging energy service providers.

Customer benefits include:

Greater ability to connect and utilise technologies such as electric vehicles, solar, batteries, and smart home devices.
Lower long-term costs by reducing the need for network investment that would otherwise be recovered through customer charges.
Improved network reliability and resilience through better management of demand peaks and local constraints.
More choice and opportunities for customers to participate in flexibility programmes and receive value from their energy assets.
A more seamless customer experience, where energy resources work together intelligently in the background to optimise energy use.

Ultimately, the project aims to demonstrate how a platform-enabled, flexibility-led approach can deliver a more affordable, resilient, and customer-centric electricity system while supporting the energy transition at scale.

Changes to the project scope or intended outcomes

The project’s overall objectives have remained unchanged. As the project has matured, the focus has evolved from developing and proving DSO capabilities to scaling real-world deployment through Gridex, including Flexible Imports, Exports and Connections as well as flexibility services. This reflects successful implementation, growing customer participation, and increasing opportunities to apply flexibility across the network.

Upcoming milestones

Major milestones include expanding flexible capacity through Gridex, increasing participation from customers and aggregators, scaling Flexible Connections, and enabling more solar, battery and EV charging resources to support network flexibility and electrification.

Progress made

Since the project commenced, Counties Energy has deployed smart technologies (e.g. Solar PV, Batteries, EV Chargers, Home Energy Management Systems, etc) in 70+ homes. Counties Energy has developed and launched Gridex, a DSO orchestration platform designed to coordinate distributed energy resources and unlock network flexibility at scale, and will be onboarding technologies in the trial area and running through a few congestion scenarios in the coming months. Key activities completed include achieving deployment of smart technologies at scale, CSIP-AUS Utility Server certification, trialling Flexible Imports and Exports, Designing a Residential Rebate trial methodology to reward customers for injecting to support the network. In Karaka Harbourside, Counties Energy aims to integrating nearly 2MW of flexibility out of the total 40MW connected to Gridex nationally. The trial demonstrates real-world support of the electricity distribution network, reducing connection costs and improving network utilisation. Counties Energy has also connected multiple aggregators and technology providers, establishing the operational foundations for future flexibility services, markets and DSO capabilities.

Key insights and lessons learned

A key insight from the project is that flexibility can be implemented today using existing distributed energy resources and deliver tangible benefits for customers and the network. Gridex has demonstrated that a standards-based DSO platform can successfully coordinate flexible demand, improve utilisation of existing network capacity, and support growing electrification without relying solely on traditional network investment. What has worked particularly well is the practical deployment of Flexible Connections and strong collaboration across customers, technology providers and aggregators. For other EDBs, the key lesson is to start with practical use cases that deliver immediate value while progressively building the foundations for future flexibility services and DSO capabilities.