ELN Podcast - Demand Flexibility Service - the key to future energy supply?

Energy Live News Podcast

Households and businesses across the UK have been paid to cut back on electricity on Monday and Tuesday as part of the National Grid ESO's Demand Flexibility Service (DFS).

Although the scheme is believed to have offered much-wanted relief to the strained grid, critics have said that this might be a "sticking plaster" that could not provide a long-term solution to the rising energy needs.

Chris Broadhurst, Chief Commercial Officer at Electron, an EnTech company which provides a marketplace platform for flexible electricity grids told ELN: "It is just scratching the surface of what's possible. If we can move to a more local approach to flexibility, then I think we can really start to drive value to customers, not just when they use it, which is how the scheme is currently working, but where they use it and they will get paid real value for that."

Mr Broadhurst added that a recent study by Energy Systems Catapult showed that if the UK moves to a much more local approach to matching supply and demand and pricing energy locally, it could unlock more than £30 billion by 2035 - this means that every household could benefit from nearly a thousand of pounds.

Click the podcast to listen to the full interview.