As the UK is planning to electrify large proportions of its infrastructure (e.g. rail, cars and heating), it is predicted that this will generate the need for 40GW of energy over the next 10 years. Flexibility services will help to accommodate this new electricity demand. 

Flexibility services stabilise the grid, making it less reliant on the weather conditions. Since people use the most energy to heat their homes during cold snaps and long evenings in winter, we need to have spare capacity for extreme weather scenarios.    

Battery storage improves the overall efficiency of the grid by reducing idle generation of energy. Without storage, energy produced during windy and sunny days might go to waste.  

Flexible markets will help early adopters with reducing their bills as they are able to sell their excess energy.  

With time, flexible technologies will lower bills for everyone, not just those participating in flexibility markets! This is because it is expected that the local flexible technologies will replace the need to build new centralised infrastructure projects. 

Flexibility could help to meet decarbonisation goals with fewer resources. It is estimated that the cost of the electricity system in Great Britain could be reduced by £40 billion by 2050 with greater flexibility and the deployment of more energy storage.  

Modern commercial batteries are not (yet) environmentally friendly. Lithium-ion mines also face criticism for poor labour conditions.  

The argument for saving money by building less centralised infrastructure relies on an assumption that individuals and communities will effectively invest in their own smart solutions, a future which is dependent on mass public acceptability of even enthusiasm towards flexibility. 

Energy sector stakeholders (regulators, suppliers) haven’t decided on the details of future energy tariffs. Currently most people use a flat energy tariff, meaning that their consumption costs the same regardless of the time in a day. This doesn’t reflect the true cost of energy, as during peak demand times energy is more expensive to generate. However, time of use tariffs are still in early phases and we’re not sure what would happen if they were to scale up. We still need to come up with the right pricing systems to build in justice into flexibility so everyone can afford to cook their meals and heat their homes. 

Not everyone can fully participate in flexibility services, whether due to the lack of time, poverty or mistrust towards new technologies. As a result, we risk excluding people from the sustainable transition. If delivering clean energy is a universal challenge, it is an imperative that we get everyone on board. Therefore, we need to avoid the traditional dynamics of innovation adoption, where only affluent people reap the benefits.   

Flexibility services will involve analytics and management of the large amounts of data. These actions need to be coordinated by regulators to ensure appropriate privacy, security and interoperability. 

Briefing: Flexible energy systems – a short explainer by Carbon Trust 

Local Energy Oxfordshire – Benefits of Flexibility – an introduction to Project LEO, a local flexibility trial in Oxfordshire