Smart Metering Solutions testing domestic demand side response solutions

Smart Energy Solutions (SMS) has begun laboratory testing of Interoperable Demand Side Response (IDSR) solutions as part of the UK Government’s Flexibility Innovation Programme.

SMS and its partners – Engage Consulting Limited and Netherlands Measurement Institute (NMi) – were awarded a lab testing contract in 2024 by the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Funded by the Government’s £1 billion ($1.3 billion) Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, the Flexibility Innovation Programme aims to establish new ways of achieving domestic flexibility through developing new IDSR applications.

This includes how behind-the-meter energy smart appliances (ESAs) such as electric vehicle chargers, batteries, heat pumps and whitegoods can achieve interoperability (via the PAS 1878/79 Standard) to optimise the demand flexibility potential of UK homes.

As part of the project, SMS – which is an approved provider of demand side flexibility for the domestic and non-domestic markets – has developed a new version of its FlexiGrid aggregation platform to test ESAs against new IDSR applications.

The smart energy infrastructure company is also expanding its existing smart metering test facilities in Bolton, Lancashire, to accommodate the testing of ESAs in mock domestic settings.

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Commenting in a release, Mark Hamilton, managing director of FlexiGrid at SMS, said:

“To accommodate this shift to a distributed renewable energy system, flexibility will be required from many different sources, but will increasingly need to come from domestic behind-the-meter ESAs like EV chargers, heat pumps, storage heating, and battery storage.

“The IDSR Programme is a major step forward in showing how ESA manufacturers can design to a common standard for demand response, ultimately delivering the interoperability required to maximise flexibility participation from homes and businesses.”

Added Tom Woolley, smart product and strategy director at SMS: “With the uptake of energy smart appliances, it’s critical that common language and policies exist in the management and operations of these assets.

“This step change in interoperability and interchangeability needs to come soon, and it won’t be simple for manufacturers. The testing capabilities and facility we have established that combine SMS’s technical and testing prowess in the smart meter industry with our pioneering FlexiGrid aggregation services will play a significant role in this process moving forward.”

By providing flexibility, an increasing number of ESAs installed across British homes will facilitate this by balancing the intermittency of renewable generation, helping decrease dependence on fossil fuels to power the grid.

An estimated 30GW of low-carbon flexible assets are projected to be deployed across the grid by 2030 (representing a three-fold increase on today’s levels).

The Electricity System Operator (National Grid ESO) has already begun to encourage this shift into flexibility through the introduction of its Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), which during its first two winters saw over 1.6 million homes and businesses deliver almost 500MW of new flexibility to the system.

The scheme, which pays people to use less electricity during peak times, incentivises use ESAs as these devices can be programmed to take part automatically, potentially saving a lot more energy and money without the need for consumers to manually change how and when they use power.