The national grid has released multiple revenue streams which high energy users can benefit from. An estimated 25% of the current power capacity will have shut down in the next 10 years, meanwhile the short visibility and forecasting of the UK renewable portfolio added to the long term uncertainty of the upgrade of the nuclear portfolio is forcing the national grid to becoming smarter and more flexible in the way in balances supply and demand. Innovation in sensors, metering, controls, software and IOT technologies has enabled to make demand side response a reality being implemented.
Watch the grid frequency live.
Currently, less than 1% of the power supply is being managed by flexible demand response, the long term goal is that 50% of the UK power usage should be managed by demand side response. We understand that £8 billion worth of savings can be achieved for UK consumers through DSR, interconnectors and storage.
Challenges: There are a number of revenue streams which can, depending on various factors can be available to your business. The revenue streams are being brought to market by the national grid and by the demand and frequency aggregators. However, the market fragmentation and the complexity of the mechanisms and the lack of market awareness are barriers to the mainstream adoption of DSR by major energy users. We understand that about half of high energy users have not planned to benefit from demand side response and about a quarter have simply never heard of demand side response.
To build an overview and a clear plan of what revenue streams can DSR bring to your organisation you would need to:
- Quantify the power usage (output) and the power capacity (input) of your organisation
- Understand the energy and power hungry assets chillers, AHU’s, pumps, fans, compressors, refrigeration, process equipment and the like in your organisation and how they operate.
- Confirm that the asset can take between 30 seconds and 30 minutes to respond
- Establish how often (between 5 and 50 times a year) and for how long (typically between 30 minutes and 2 hours) these assets can be turned down or even turned off
With in-depth knowledge of assets, leadership in energy management and electrical engineering best practices, ETS are able to advise, define and select the best strategy to adopt for your organisation with regards to frequency and demand side response. There are plenty of options available out there and their attractiveness can vary greatly depending on your core business and your assets, we tailor our approach to your business needs.