The UK’s energy regulator, Ofgem, has appointed Elexon to deliver Flexibility Market Asset Registration (FMAR) for Great Britain.
In this role, Elexon, which manages the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC) in the UK, will be responsible for bringing together national and local flexibility market asset regulation processes, as well as designing digital infrastructure to support this process. Once the new Flexibility Market Asset Registration platform is live, flexibility aggregators or asset owners will be able to register their assets for the market either through the National Energy System Operator (NESO), local Distribution System Operators (DSOs), or directly into the register itself. Unlike the current process, which requires flexibility providers to register their assets multiple times across all the markets they wish to participate in, asset owners will now only need to register once, streamlining the process significantly.
Elexon was selected to lead this process following an open consultation by the energy regulator, which closed in September 2024. Following this consultation, Ofgem has clarified the scope of the role, and has also added that it expects Elexon to collaborate and share data with all relevant bodies in order to enable the development of better energy systems in the UK.
Elexon chief executive officer, Peter Stanley said: “We welcome Ofgem’s decision to give the market facilitator the tools and levers to reduce barriers so we can successfully grow flexibility. We now have the governance to align those markets through data and digitalisation. Implementing a common approach to flexibility asset registration will provide a solution where data about flexibility assets is collected once, stored as a single source of truth, and can be accessed by multiple users who need it. This will start to address some of the barriers that flexibility service providers and consumers face – enabling them to access the full value of their assets.”
Ofgem speeds delivery of new flexibility tool
As part of this announcement, Ofgem has stated that they have brought forward the anticipated launch date for this system forward by a year, with delivery now expected in 2027.
The newly introduced system will serve as a “one-stop shop” for registering flexibility assets, with the registration process for aggregators – asset owners who group together smaller flexibility assets such as home solar PV, EV chargers and home battery energy storage systems (BESS) – a particular focus of streamlining efforts. When the new system launches, aggregators will be able to join more than 20 different flexible energy markets with one single registration.
Marzia Zafar, deputy director of digitalisation and Innovation at Ofgem, said: “Flexing usage in our energy system is critical to lower bills and reduce emissions. By removing barriers for aggregators to register assets, we’re increasing the pace at which flexible tariffs can be offered to consumers.
“The work to bring down bills and clean up our energy system is not an overnight process, but by bringing forward FMAR by a year, Ofgem is making clear its commitment to facilitating an energy system that allows consumers everywhere to take advantage of the benefits flexible tariffs have to offer.”
In a recent Current± blog, Peter Stanley, Elexon chief executive officer, discussed how the market facilitator is enabling the demand-side flexibility that clean power plans call for – read it here.
