The Demand Flexibility Service is a scheme by the National Grid to help balance energy demand in the UK.
With the threats of energy shortages and blackouts, the Grid has come up with a way to lower demand at peak times. It’s called the Demand Flexibility Service.
What is the Demand Flexibility Service?
The idea is to encourage people to use less energy at peak times to help balance the grid.
Peak time is typically between 4pm and 7pm. That’s when most people are home, cooking dinner, watching TV, warming themselves by the central heating and using the most energy.
This puts the system under immense pressure and may require additional generators and extra measures to deliver the energy we need.
That will cost money and perhaps require scheduled power cuts.
The intent of the Demand Flexibility Service is to encourage people to scale back energy use during this time to lower the risk of those power cuts.
Use less energy and the grid should avoid needing generators and extra capacity, saving money.
It’s just a trial right now but may be rolled out to everyone in time.
How can you save money on energy with the Demand Flexibility Service?
The ideal behind the Demand Flexibility Service is to pay you to lower your energy use during peak times.
The trial started on 1st November with Octopus Energy and is being rolled out to Eon and EDF.
There are plans to roll it out to other providers in time.
If you have a smart meter and are part of the scheme, you’ll be paid to reduce your energy usage by 30% between 1 November 2022 and 31 March 2023.
These are currently called ‘energy saving sessions’ and will last just 1 hour. You’ll be notified the day before so you can plan and will be expected to reduce energy usage at a set point between 4pm and 7pm for that day.
If you take part, your energy supplier will credit your bill around £3 per unit (kilowatt-hour) you save during that time.
Over the 5 months of the scheme, you could earn up to £100 which will be credited to your energy bill.
If you want to be a part of the Demand Flexibility Service, contact your energy provider to see when they will be rolling the scheme out.
Remember though, it’s only for those with smart meters.
Why do we need a Demand Flexibility Service?
We need a Demand Flexibility Service because the National Grid isn’t up to delivering our energy needs.
It’s an old system that hasn’t kept up with the times or with our changing energy needs. Power stations are operating at, or close to, capacity and there are no new power stations or renewable options able to deliver more energy yet.
The reasons are many and the system has severely let us down, but we are where we are.
As always, it’s the public that will be paying for the system’s failings.
ESO Chief executive Chris O’Shea said: “The electricity grid is facing increased pressure and smart technology plays a key role in managing peak demand – reducing consumption has the added benefit of helping consumers save on their energy bills.
“We’ll be taking learnings from this stage with the aim of using our scale to roll out to our wider customer base.”
So it’s us that will be helping the grid cope rather than the grid scaling up to give us what we need.
