Smart energy solutions company SMS has started testing Interoperable Demand Side Response (IDSR) solutions as part of the UK government’s Flexibility Innovation Programme.
With the laboratory testing being aided via finance from the government’s £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio, the Flexibility Innovation Programme aims to establish new ways of achieving domestic flexibility through developing new IDSR applications.
This will cover how Energy Smart Appliances (ESAs), such as electric vehicle (EV) chargers, batteries, heat pumps and whitegoods can achieve interoperability through the PAS 1878/79 Standard to optimise the demand flexibility potential of UK homes.
Mark Hamilton, managing director of FlexiGrid at SMS, said: “To accommodate this shift to a distributed renewable energy system, flexibility will be required from many different sources, but will increasingly need to come from domestic behind-the-meter ESAs like EV chargers, heat pumps, storage heating, and battery storage.
“The IDSR Programme is a major step forward in showing how ESA manufacturers can design to a common standard for Demand Response, ultimately delivering the interoperability required to maximise flexibility participation from homes and businesses.”
Domestic flexibility grows in popularity
Domestic flexibility continues to grow in popularity across the UK and with this in mind, National Grid National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED) revealed in early January it had expanded its flexibility offer for winter 2024/25 across 1,426 new locations on its low voltage (LV) distribution network.
The LV Sustain service rewards domestic participants for reducing their energy demand during daily fixed 4-hour periods as part of the National Grid’s ongoing distribution network upgrades in preparation for net zero.
It is worth noting that NGED has a significant role to play in expanding domestic flexibility services, as recognised by the Energy Networks Association in August 2023, which announced NGED as “GB’s largest flexibility provider.”