National Grid’s demand side balance reserve (DSBR) programme was too “blunt” and disruptive for consumers to be an attractive proposition, Open Energi’s David Hill has said.
Speaking to Clean Energy News, the managing director of Open Energi’s storage division said the DSBR tender was not a market his company was ever particularly interested in due to its framework not being centred around the consumer.
The DSBR tender was launched in April this year and invited commercial and industrial users to volunteer to reduce demand during winter peaks – typically between 4pm and 8pm on weekdays – in return for a payment.
That reduction could be sourced either through load shifting, back-up systems or embedded generators, and payments of up to £16,000 per MW of capability and £15,000 per MW of demand reduction were made available.
But the tender was abruptly cancelled in August this year, with National Grid claiming that “minimal volume” would be available throughout the period indicating poorer than expected tender submissions.
Hill said that the framework put across by National Grid for the tender failed to take into account the potential disruption it could cause.
“The DSBR service was a little bit blunt to consumers; you just get a signal and have to turn off. It’s not something I would be looking to push because the price point was less than what we are able to get in other markets, and the actual disruption was not hugely attractive.
“It’s never nice to see some markets go away, but I don’t think it was ever the future of market design. It seemed like a temporary response to a capacity problem,” he added.
National Grid said in August that it intended to collaborate with C&I users to possibly develop “alternative delivery routes” for reserve capacity this winter, however nothing yet has been confirmed by the grid operator.
