UK Govt Trades Energy Demand Flexibility

UK retailer Centrica and French-owned EDF Energy are among the six companies to qualify to supply energy to the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) on a three-year Demand Side Response (DSR) framework (RM 3792), designed to financially incentivise customers to lower or shift their electricity use at peak times.

Despite the shrinking supply margin for electricity in the UK, investors are not building much plant, as demand for the output is so uncertain; so rather than pay peak prices, multi-site end users may elect to switch demand to cheaper periods and generate some of their own power at the most expensive times of the day, for which they receive a payment. 

The DSR services help large energy users such as hospitals to access new revenue streams while supporting grid stability, Centrica said August 18. "We’ve been working with a number of hospitals on major programmes to overhaul their energy assets so we’re delighted to be included on this framework agreement, which will allow users to take their energy management to the next level.”

Government bodies and departments that will be able to use the framework agreement include the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Justice, Department for Work and Pensions, Transport for London, NHS England and Scottish Procurement.

To win a place on the framework agreement Centrica had to demonstrate its expertise and meet exacting ‘best in class’ criteria around areas such as quality and environmental accreditation, transparency of pricing, cybersecurity and insurance. The other four companies are not the rest of the Big Six: they are Flexitricity, Limejump, Endeco and Enernoc.

William Powell