National Grid ESO has announced that the fourth test of its Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) will run on the evening of 1 December.
It ran its first two tests on the 15 and 22 November, calling on participants up and down the country to turn down demand by 200W per half an hour.
During the first test, Octopus Energy customer contributed 108MW and during the second they contributed 112MW as part of the company’s Saving Sessions scheme for example.
The third DFS test is set to run this evening (30 November) from 17:30-18:30, with the ESO looking for 500MW total demand reduction (250MW per half an hour).
At 14:30 today it confirmed that the next DFS test will run from 17:00-18:00, with a target of 500MW total demand reduction over the hour.
There are now 25 providers – both domestic and non-domestic – of the service, with the UK’s third largest domestic supplier OVO announcing its participation earlier this week.
National Grid ESO set out the new service in Winter Outlook report, following a number of trials run throughout 2022.
It is one of a suite of tools the operator is planning to use to manage the grid over this winter, which is expected to be particularly tight given the European energy crisis.
While high wind generation and unseasonably warm weather depressing demand over October and much of November has provided a welcome respite for the system, over the past week it has started to become more constrained, with high LoLP seen over a number of periods, two Capacity Market Notices issued and prices jumping to over £1,200/MWh in the day ahead market.