National Grid to engage more businesses on energy flexibility this winter

Following a successful trial with over a million households last winter, the national Electricity System Operator is looking to reward industrial and commercial businesses for grid-friendly energy usage.

Between November 2022 and March 2023, 1.6 million energy consumers participated in the National Grid ESO’s trial Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), which offered financial rewards in return for reducing energy demand at peak times.

By voluntarily shifting consumption to times when the grid is under less strain – for example when renewable energy generation is high or when power demand is low – energy users can help the network to balance supply and demand. This minimises the costs of managing the grid for everyone, as well as supporting the move to a smarter, greener electricity system. 

Successful trial

National Grid ESO’s winter 2022/23 DFS was the largest demand response scheme to have taken place on Britain’s electricity network to date. More than 3,300MWh of electricity was saved over 22 ‘demand reduction events’ in total – enough to power nearly ten million homes.

Any consumer could take part as long as they had a smart meter installed and their energy supplier was participating in the scheme.

Call for more businesses to get involved

National Grid ESO is now working on its plans for next winter’s DFS and has already confirmed that it will be looking to engage more industrial and commercial energy users as well as households and small businesses.

“Across this winter the Demand Flexibility Service successfully demonstrated the interest of UK consumers and businesses in playing a more active role in balancing our electricity needs,” explained Claire Dykta, head of markets at National Grid ESO.

“We are now working with industry and consumers to establish how this world-leading service can grow from strength to strength and support the continued evolution of consumer flexibility in the UK.”

The rise of smart tariffs

As well as the DFS scheme, many energy suppliers are also offering their own independent energy-flexing incentives. For example, Octopus Energy’s Agile Octopus smart tariff, which incentivises customers to consume more power when there is excess renewable energy on the grid, paid out up to 20p/kWh earlier in July when a surge in wind and solar temporarily turned power prices negative.

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