Andy Lowe, CEO at Flexitricity
At the same time, Britain’s power system is undergoing its fastest transformation in history as the country moves towards its Clean Power 2030 targets. Greater reliance on wind and solar power has already reduced carbon intensity from 718gCO₂e/kWh in 1990 to just 125g in 2024. However, renewable generation is intermittent and doesn’t always align with demand. You can’t make the wind blow harder at 5:30pm or the sun shine longer on a cold winter evening. When generation can’t adapt, demand must.
Increasingly, the most valuable power on the grid isn’t what’s produced, but what businesses choose not to use.
Everyday assets with extraordinary flexibility
It’s a normal day. The day-ahead electricity auctions have cleared in the normal way. Generators have sold their electricity according to these day-ahead prices, giving them their plan for the day. By 7:00am, the usual morning rise in demand begins. But this morning it’s faster than usual.
In the National Energy System Operator’s (NESO) control room, engineers need to act. Instead of firing up another gas turbine, dispatch instructions are sent through the Balancing Mechanism (BM). The instructions reach flexibility providers like Flexitricty, who in turn manage their customers’ participation in the BM, ensuring that the right assets respond at the right time.
Within seconds, a water pumping station in Yorkshire eases its flow, workplace EV chargers in Birmingham adjust charging rates and compressors at a manufacturing plant in Kent shift operations slightly. No one loses light. Production targets stay on track. And those businesses quietly make money before most people have even had breakfast, not from producing power, but from not using it.
This is ad-hoc energy flexibility. It’s not a once-in-a-blue-moon rescue mission, but an everyday part of running an increasingly renewable-heavy grid. Small, time-limited adjustments like these allow the grid to rely more on renewable sources and avoid firing up fossil-fuel generators during peak demand, cutting carbon and rewarding participating businesses.
The secret to unlocking flexibility
The businesses best placed to benefit are often the ones sitting on “hidden storage”. A cold store can hold its temperature for hours, allowing compressors to pause without spoiling stock. A water company can shift pumping schedules slightly to avoid peak prices. EV chargers can speed up or slow down electricity usage depending on grid conditions. None of these changes affect the core service, but every one of them can increase business revenue.
Until recently, this kind of flexibility was locked behind rigid contracts like Short Term Operating Reserve, which required months or years of commitment. Now they can take part in a morning event and skip the afternoon if it doesn’t suit. The control stays with them, while the flexibility provider handles the complexity of market signals, dispatch systems and settlement.
The scale of the opportunity
The scale of the opportunity is enormous. NESO estimates Britain’s consumer-led flexibility capacity at around 2.5GW today, but it needs to reach 10–12GW by 2030.
And it’s not just heavy industry or massive infrastructure that can benefit. Supermarket fridges, water treatment pumps, greenhouse lighting, manufacturing compressors, even office EV chargers can all play a role. Add it up across the country and you get gigawatts of hidden capacity that can be switched up or down in minutes.
Each event is measured down to the second and businesses are paid precisely for the flexibility they provide. Multiply that across months and it’s not just spare change, it’s a line in the budget.
When generation can’t adapt, demand must
Britain’s power system has always been more flexible than many realise, with generators adjusting to market needs. Ad-hoc energy flexibility isn’t about shutting down operations or asking people to sit in the dark. It’s about making the most of assets that can shift when they use power, without disruption. It’s turning the everyday machinery of British business into a distributed network of hidden power stations, each playing its part in a cleaner, more resilient and more efficient electricity system.