National Grid ESO will again run a Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) test over this evening’s (13 February) peak.
It has put out a request for 250MW of capacity per half an hour from 17:30-18:30, and procured over 227MW and 232MW of capacity over the first and second 30 minute period respectively.
|
Date |
From (GMT) |
To (GMT) |
DFS Required (MW) |
DFS Procured (MW) |
DFS Provider Bids Accepted (£) |
|
2023-02-13 |
17:30:00 |
18:00:00 |
250 |
227.64 |
341457 |
|
2023-02-13 |
18:00:00 |
18:30:00 |
250 |
232.56 |
348842 |
DFS was launched on 1 November after being set out in ESO’s Winter Outook report in October 2022, which drew particular attention as it laid out both enhanced and emergency measure the operator had in place to keep the lights on during what was expected to be a very constrained winter period.
Test events within the DFS last for at least an hour and run during weekdays. Each provider – of which there are now more than 26 – is entitled to two onboarding tests, as well as the two monthly tests run by the operator in the subsequent months.
As such, for companies that joined in November, they will be able to participate in a maximum of 12 tests between the start of the trial period and the end on 31 March 2023.
For those that have joined subsequently, the ESO has run a number of additional onboarding test events that have been limited to new companies and have thus had lower requirements, hence why the number of tests has now passed the 12 test maximum.
The test today forms one of the ESO’s regular tests – it is not being used to onboard any new companies – and is the ninth such since November. There will be another regular test in February, as well as two more in March.
In the first two months of its use, there were a flurry of DFS events, driven by tight conditions on the grid amid a particularly cold snap of weather and the need to on-board providers.
The first six tests ran on 15 November, 22 November, 30 November, 1 December and 12 December – this final date saw two one hour tests run back-to-back – saving over 780MWh of real and projected demand. Following this, the seventh and eighth tests took place on 20 and 23 of December respectively.
Moving into 2023, the ESO ran tests on 17 January, 19 January, 30 January and 31 January making up the ninth to 12th tests.
As well as these test events, National Grid ESO has run two live events, the first of which ran from 17:00 and 18:00 on 23 January, and saw the operator request 323MW in the first half an hour and 336MW in the second.
The second live event ran just the day after on 24 January between 16:30 and 18:00, with 274MW required for the first half an hour, 330MW for the second and 341MW for the final half an hour.
