Our business customers save cash and carbon by providing energy flexibility
We’re always looking for new ways to help our business customers save money and reduce their carbon footprint. That’s why we’ve been working behind the scenes to bring the benefits of the flexibility market to our business customers.
Between November and March, we successfully trialled offering the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) to our large business customers, proving the importance of flexibility, delivering energy savings and reducing energy use and emissions in peak periods.
- Participants achieved combined savings of around £285,000
- On average, these businesses provided 8.6MW of capacity to the grid
So, what is flexibility and why do we need it?
Flexibility contributes to the balancing of supply and demand in the national energy system, so that customers can get the power they need, when they need it National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO).
The development of flexibility solutions is essential to help overcome increasing capacity and intermittency challenges in our evolving energy system, and help our transition to net zero. Ofgem and DESNZ forecast a dramatic increase in the amount of flexibility needed in the coming years, from 10GW in 2021, to 30GW by 2030, and 60GW by 2050 (Ofgem).
Demand flexibility is an innovative approach to managing energy demand. By paying businesses to change their consumption patterns, schemes like the DFS aim to ease pressure on the energy system at peak times, while saving customers money.
How does DFS work?
The voluntary DFS scheme incentivises businesses to reduce their energy consumption at peak times, in order to ease the demand on the energy system and help avoid calling on additional – usually gas - generation.
Participating businesses can also cut their costs by reducing energy consumption during defined periods of time, referred to as ‘events’.
Based on signals from the National Grid ESO, we notify our business customers when each turn-down event is taking place and the incentive available to them, if they choose to participate in that event. Businesses who decide to take part in an event are then credited based on the amount they were able to turn down by during that time, compared to their baseline consumption.
This winter’s results for our business customers
Our participating customers were businesses from a range of sectors, based across the UK. Each business showed a forward-thinking commitment to exploring new opportunities on the path to net zero emissions.
Our customers could participate in 12 separate flexibility events over the course of the trial, which ran between November 2023 and March 2024. On average, our six participating customers helped to deliver 8.6MW to the grid during each event and made a combined saving of around £285k.
Raghav Singh, Head of Large Business at EDF Business Solutions, said:
We’re pleased to have successfully trialled the DFS scheme, and the results show how sustainability and financial benefits can go hand in hand. Flexibility is a useful route for businesses to cut costs, enhance their sustainability credentials and gain a competitive edge.
We’re now working to leverage the success of the trial to bring the wider benefits of energy flexibility to even more customers in future.
How else can businesses deliver flexibility?
DFS is a great example of a service enabling businesses to deliver demand flexibility, but it’s not the only option available to businesses.
The opportunities available differ for each business, depending on their site setup, the electrical assets available and the appetite to sign capacity up to flexibility services. For some businesses, this might mean using battery storage for wholesale optimisation, or for entering services such as the capacity market. For others, it may be identifying processes that you can turn down, or switch off, at short notice and participating in local flexibility services.
We can support you to find a flexibility service that works for your business. If you’re considering flexibility for your business, you’ll need to ensure your meter can be settled on a half-hourly basis.
Interested in getting involved in flexibility services?
To find out more about how flexibility can transform your energy strategy, get in touch with your EDF Business Solutions Account Manager and they can discuss the options with you.
Get a Smart Meter
Businesses will benefit from having a Smart meter when participating in flexibility services – click here for more info about installation and booking an appointment.
