Flexitricity seeks new ‘supply partners’ to share in £4.5m in Capacity Market pay-out

Edinburgh-based Flexitricity is seeking businesses to join its network of energy partners to help National Grid balance and secure the national electricity supply system via the Capacity Market mechanism.

This was introduced by the UK Government to find new sources of energy to ease pressure on the nation’s supply of energy.

In 2014, Flexitricity became the first company of its kind to secure obligations to provide 260MW of capacity to the GB Capacity Market, starting in October 2018. This was repeated the following year with 277MW of Capacity Market obligation secured for the 2019 delivery period.

Companies who sign up as business partners are rewarded for making adjustments to their energy consumption or onsite generation during periods of high grid-demand for power. They will secure a share of a £4.5 million ‘pot’.

Flexitricity has already allocated more than £7 million worth of contracts to existing partners – including manufacturers, data centres, refrigerated warehouses and hospitals – who earn up to £60,000 per MW supplied to the Grid.

Ron Ramage, Chief Executive at Flexitricity, said: “By connecting to our network, companies and organisations have the opportunity to avoid costs and significantly boost their revenue with no adverse impact on their day-to-day business.

 “Our system works by periodically lowering electricity consumption at our ‘energy partner’ sites when National Grid is facing imbalance between supply and demand. By responding to this, companies are rewarded.

“Similarly, those partners with on-site generation capability could be called upon to deliver additional power for short periods. It’s a fully automated service with 24/7 monitoring available to all our partners from our Edinburgh-based control room.”

Called demand response, the system has been identified as a key component of the UK’s electricity supply chain, with National Grid set to invest up to £400 million a year in demand response by 2020.

The market was created as part of the UK Government’s Electricity Market Reform package to secure additional energy supplies during a period when capacity margins are expected to reach their lowest level for decades.