UK Power Networks has launched its biggest Flexibility Tender yet, to free up energy capacity across the network to connect more renewables and low-carbon technologies.
Building on the previous tenders run over the last six years, UK Power Networks is now procuring flexibility across one thousand areas in London, south-east and east of England, where customers can opt in to be paid for “flexibility” during periods of peak electricity consumption or excess renewable generation by changing their pattern of energy use. Customers could be called on to charge their electric car at a different time, for example.
This will unlock more than 500MW of capacity, over the next three years and save bill payers £400m by 2028, UK Power Networks said.
The scheme is open to businesses with at least 10kW of flexibility in a constrained area.
Households may participate through registered energy suppliers or aggregators. Participants need to register their capabilities on Piclo (an online marketplace for flexibility), before being assessed by UK Power Networks.
Participants must pre-qualify for the tender by 31 January, with the earliest contracts for delivery beginning in summer 2023.
Sotiris Georgiopoulos, head of smart grid development at UK Power Networks, said: “This is a critical time for all energy networks.
“We need to accommodate more electric vehicles and heat pumps, along with the continued growth of solar and wind generation.
“We have been using flexibility since 2017 to accommodate growth in demand for electricity, but for the first time we will also use it to help more renewables connect and generate electricity, something no other operator has done at the scale we’re proposing.”
He said the new tender forms a key part of the company’s wider plans to support the transition to Net Zero at lowest cost.
“Our latest business plan excluded more than £400m of network investment on the basis that we plan to manage many parts of our network more cost-effectively using flexibility.
“These are real savings which are being passed on directly to bill payers.”
UK Power Networks is calling for flexibility in local areas where electricity demand or generation is expected to outstrip the capacity of substations and cables, sometimes only for a few hours per year.
This flexibility can come from large electricity generators, grid-connected batteries or from homes and businesses that are able to change their usage patterns.
Participants earn payments for supporting the network, while lowering costs and connection times.
Without flexibility, distribution networks would need to upgrade equipment or build more infrastructure to manage peak demand or to reduce the output of generators.
Flexibility can be cheaper and less disruptive than network upgrades and help get more zero-carbon energy produced by solar and wind farms onto the network, said UK Power Networks.