Energy trial earns money for businesses

We have revamped a trial that will help businesses in 14 zones in the Midlands earn extra money from their existing energy assets.

The move follows a decision by the regulator Ofgem and our own stakeholder research.

The result is that Flexible Power now has a new suite of options available to businesses that have half-hourly metering and can reduce their electrical consumption or increase their on-site generation for at least two hours in response to an automated signal.

WPD Innovation and Low Carbon Networks Engineer Matt Watson, who is leading the project, said: “By altering customer behaviour at key times, expensive reinforcement of the distribution network can be avoided, which provides benefits to all electricity customers as it reduces costs. In addition, demand side response (DSR) can help manage and limit network outages.”

There are three options available to businesses:

• Secure – designed to manage peak demand on the network, it’s expected it will be required on weekday evenings throughout the year.
• Dynamic – developed to support the network in the event of a fault during maintenance periods, which usually take place during British Summer Time.
• Restore – designed to support the network or help with restoration during a fault.

Businesses can provide either Secure or Dynamic services, depending on where they are based. Requirement windows are declared in advance to allow customers to participate in alternative services when not required by Flexible Power. Restore services are available in all areas.

All services require businesses to respond within 15 minutes of a request.

The trials will take place from April 2018 to March 2019.