National Grid’s flexibility scheme saves 250MWh as energy fears mount

As peak Winter hours raise energy anxieties in the UK, National Grid ESO has successfully delivered the first live version of its Demand Flexibility Scheme, saving 250MWh in energy and paying back over £1 million ($1.2 million) to consumers.

The scheme, which is open to houses with smart meters, saw trials begin on November 2022 and was developed by the British utility to coordinate energy consumption in cases of extreme levels of demand during peak Winter hours.

Monday, January 23, saw the scheme’s first iteration in a live scenario with Octopus Energy, British Gas, EDF and E.ON all taking part. Tuesday, January 24, was the final live version, although the scheme will run with the option of again going live until March 2023.

As an extra precautionary measure, the utility instructed coal-fired power units to be available, should the need arise for increased electricity supply.

The Guardian reported that 400,000 consumers took part in the trial on Tuesday, monetarily incentivized to reduce their electricity consumption between 4.30pm and 6pm.

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The demand response scheme is National Grid’s approach to potentially curbing electricity demand and preventing potential blackouts, which are feared due to a mixture of generation issues, weather conditions and ever-rising energy demand.

Following the use of the demand flexibility service on Monday, which saved over 1GW, Jo-Jo Hubbard, CEO and co-founder of Electron, commented: “It’s great to see signals going out and consumers adjusting energy consumption. National initiatives like this are a great step forwards on our path to net zero, but we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible.

“By moving to a local approach for flexibility, we can start incentivising customers to adjust their consumption based not just on when they use it, but where – and getting paid real value for it. By doing this, we can start making much more efficient use of our grid, and stop relying as heavily on peaking, polluting generators.”

In December 2022, the service had its fifth testing, delivering over 780MWh in energy saved and illustrating the potential that flexibility provides for dire situations where traditional and renewable generation is unreliable and blackouts become a real possibility.