A second report for the Household or Microbusiness Energy flexibility (HOMEflex) Project by nonprofit compliance company Flex Assure has found that the majority of flexibility service providers support the creation of a compliance scheme for the domestic sector.
Published in collaboration with Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks (SSEN) Distribution, the research was carried out by the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) and Centre of Sustainable Energy (CSE).
Participants in the domestic flexibility sector supported the implementation of a compliance scheme that builds on the existing HOMEflex Code of Conduct, further suggesting that a compliance scheme should ensure customer protection, build trust in practitioners, prepare industry for formal regulation and incentivise high-quality service.
SSEN’s Future Networks Innovation project manager, Simon O’Loughlin, said that flexibility markets are “already functioning well”, but “domestic customers and micro-businesses are still new to this way of trading”.
He continued: “The existing HOMEflex Code of Conduct serves as the cornerstone of a robust flexibility market built on transparency and inclusivity, and we are certain this latest piece of research—and its recommendations—will enable everyone who wants to participate to do so with confidence and fairness in the transition to net zero.”
Flexibility has a key role in the transition to net zero, as the introduction of variable renewable energy sources challenges the UK’s electricity grid. Analysis from Aurora Energy Research has emphasised that flexible power demand is essential if the UK is to gain any substantial benefit from its goal of having 50-60GW of offshore wind capacity online by 2030.
Flex Assure’s scheme administrator Charlotte Roniger added: “Domestic flexibility will continue to play an important part in the UK’s journey to Net Zero, and the standards set out by HOMEflex’s Code of Conduct as the basis for a compliance scheme for providers could be highly influential in building strong customer confidence in an inclusive, fair and transparent domestic flexibility market.”
HOMEflex is a two-year project which has received Network Innovation Allowance (NIA) funding of £331,000 and is supported by the Energy Networks Association’s (ENA) Open Networks Project.
The ENA released figures in July showing that Great Britain is the biggest flexibility market in the world. In September, it announced that its Open Networks Challenge Group, part of the Open Networks scheme, would be chaired by Elexon, which administers the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC).
As chair of the Open Networks Challenge Group, Elexon will help strategically guide ENA’s Open Networks programme towards a more coordinated flexibility market. Elexon’s role in the flexibility market is growing, with Ofgem appointing the organisation as the market facilitator for local energy.
