BUSINESSES OFFERED OPPORTUNITY TO GENERATE INCOME AND SUPPORT TRANSITION TO LOW CARBON ENERGY FUTURE

Northern Powergrid, the company responsible for powering everyday life for 8 million people, is offering businesses across the North East and Yorkshire that are large energy users, generators or operate energy storage the opportunity to secure extra income for their business and support the transition to a low carbon energy future.

The network operator is urging those interested to visit its Flexible Power webpage and register on its procurement system by 15 August to pre-qualify and be part of a new flexibility services procurement tender covering 12 areas. Northern Powergrid is interested in hearing from large users of electricity such as factories and supermarkets, businesses with their own onsite generation or electricity storage and aggregators.

From Stockton-on-Tees down to Gainsborough, the tendering is part of Northern Powergrid’s ‘Flexibility First’ approach to create a more active and flexible network that can help the region decarbonise more quickly and meet the UK’s commitment to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.

Liz Sidebotham, Northern Powergrid’s Commercial Manager – New Markets, said: “Our customers have made it clear that they want to see our region decarbonise more quickly – and we have a critical role to play in enabling this in the regions we serve. A more active and flexible local electricity system will help us to achieve this.

“Being flexible with how and when energy is consumed and produced can help ensure the power generated and delivered always matches the amount used. By reducing consumption or releasing power back to the grid at times of high demand, and storing it or using it during times of lower demand, local 'flexibility services' can unlock additional capacity and support the connection of more low carbon technology like wind power. Our ‘Flexibility First’ approach means that where it’s possible and more efficient, we will seek flexibility services first to unlock capacity, before carrying out construction which can take longer, be more costly and disrupt communities.”

Who could provide flexibility services? 

Flexibility markets are open to distributed energy resources (DERs) with the ability to modify their energy consumption and/or production of energy in real-time, including power generators, large users of electricity such as factories and supermarkets, electricity storage operators, and also aggregators. 

For a site to provide flexibility, it must be located in the relevant position on the electricity distribution network. This includes connection voltage level as well as geographic location.  

The flexibility asset(s) should be controllable and non-intermittent so that flexibility can be reliably provided in response to dispatch signals from Northern Powergrid. Any organisations wanting to find out if they meet the necessary requirements to become a flexibility services provider can contact Northern Powergrid for advice.

Flexibility requirements and locations 

Northern Powergrid is seeking flexibility services to release capacity on the network at twelve key locations at pre-scheduled specific times, by using customers’ ability to modify their generation or usage patterns.

It is offering two-year contracts with the option to extend for a further two years. The flexibility could be provided through generation turn up, or demand turn down, or battery discharge. Flexibility can be provided by a single DER or by an aggregator of multiple DERs. A portfolio of providers could together deliver the full flexibility requirement, and so Northern Powergrid is interested in receiving bids even if bidders are able to deliver only part of the required capacity for part of the time window at a location. 

The flexibility requirements (e.g. voltage, capacity, time windows, contract start date) vary by location and more information on these and the procurement process can be found on the Flexible Power website www.flexiblepower.co.uk/locations/location/northern-powergrid  

To find out more about, get in touch at flexibility@northernpowergrid.com

NB The last number of each postcode listed below is the first character of the second part of the postcode eg DN147 means all DN14 7xx postcodes and Y089 means all YO8 9xx postcodes