Positive progress on skip rates and next steps

Skip rates have become one of the most talked about metrics in electricity system operation over the last couple of years and rightly so.

Industry challenged NESO to improve transparency, improve understanding and make progress in reducing skips. That feedback has driven a huge amount of work across the organisation. What matters now is whether that work has made a difference and what we've learned along the way.

What are skip rates

Put simply, skip rates measure how often the electricity system cannot dispatch the cheapest available balancing action because other operational factors need to be considered.

Some skips are unavoidable. Maintaining a safe and secure electricity system means control room engineers must balance a range of factors, including system constraints, asset availability and network conditions.

Reducing unnecessary skips helps ensure resources are used as efficiently as possible and can ultimately help deliver better value for consumers. 

Why we focused on skip rates

At NESO, our job is to operate Great Britain's electricity system safely, securely and efficiently. Every day, our control room teams make thousands of decisions to balance supply and demand across a system that is becoming more dynamic, more decentralised and complex. Over time, that complexity alongside the growth in the number of generation and storage assets has meant more actions are needed by the control room, with over 200,000 actions taken to balance the system during June 2026 alone.

As that complexity increases, we have to continue looking at how we can improve operational efficiency and make better use of available resources. That's why skip rates became a major focus of the Dispatch Transparency Programme and why we've spent the last 18 months working closely with industry to better understand what sits behind the numbers and how we improve.  

Listening, understanding and improving

One of the most important things we've done is listen.

The energy industry wanted greater transparency around skip rates and a clearer understanding of what was driving them. We responded by opening up the conversation, sharing more information and carrying out detailed Root Cause Analysis to get underneath the data.  

The good news is that the work is making a difference.

Skip rates reduced from 43% in January 2025 to 32% by December 2025. That's not the result of a single intervention or one big change. It's the cumulative impact of many improvements, including better data visibility, improved operations and changes to systems and processes.  

We've also started to see benefits from initiatives such as the Open Balancing Platform (OBP). We’ve seen over a 1000% increase in battery dispatch volume since OBP first went live in December 2023.

What we've learned

If there is one thing I've taken away from this work, it's that skip rates are more complex than many people assume.

The biggest lesson is that skip rates aren't driven by a single issue and won't be solved by a single intervention. 

Some improvements have come from relatively straightforward changes to visibility and understanding. Others have required much deeper analysis of operational processes, system conditions and asset behaviour. The Root Cause Analysis work has given us a far clearer picture of where improvement opportunities exist and where the remaining challenges sit.  

In many ways, building that understanding has been just as valuable as the performance improvements themselves, not least because of the conversations we have had with customers and colleagues across the sector.

As an engineer I always think that you cannot improve something sustainably if you don't properly understand what is driving it. 

What’s next?

Picking the low hanging fruit is largely behind us. The next phase will be harder but potentially much more valuable in attacking preventable skips.

Future improvements will increasingly come through deeper changes to systems, processes and methodologies rather than individual interventions. That's why the continued development of the Open Balancing Platform is so important. Over time it will continue to provide our control room engineers with a more integrated view of the system and support more efficient dispatch decisions.  

In parallel, new data available through GC0166 and planned methodology changes will help us continue improving our understanding of skip rates and where further efficiencies can be achieved. Put simply, GC0166 gives us a better picture of what storage assets can do and how much energy they have available. That improved visibility will help support better operational decisions and more efficient use of available resources over time. 

Lots done. Lots more to do.

There is still more work to do.

But we've made significant progress over the last 18 months. We've improved transparency, strengthened our understanding of what drives skip rates and improved performance levels from where they were at the start of this journey.  

Most importantly, we now have a much clearer understanding of where future improvements will come from.

That matters because this was never about chasing a metric. It remains to be about operating the electricity system more efficiently, making better use of available resources and delivering better outcomes for consumers.

We're seeing the benefits of that work already and we're committed to taking the next steps forward.  

Thank you to all our colleagues and customers across the energy industry that are working with us on this journey.