Household Or Microbusiness Energy flexibility (HOMEflex) SSEN

Key Activities

HOMEflex seeks to address gaps in fairness during the development of domestic Flexibility Services and aims to create an inclusive, fair, and transparent marketplace. It will achieve this by developing a Code of Practice for Domestic Flexibility Services, including a framework and business case for an accompanying Compliance Scheme. HOMEflex draws on previous findings including Flex Assure for industrial and commercial customers, “Smart and Fair?” and CrowdFlex. This proposal resulted from engagement with Open Networks members and is seen as important for delivering domestic and microbusiness flexibility fairly.

Progress

HOMEflex: All chapters of the HOMEflex Code of Conduct were consulted on and agreed with the working group on time and as planned, completing in August 2023. Following an open consultation the final version of the HOMEflex Code of Conduct was launched in November 2023.

This allowed HOMEflex to progress even better than expected with the advent of ESO Demand Flexibility Service allowing HOMEflex to be used in a live environment helping suppliers and aggregators follow best practice and inclusivity during the winter of 2023/24.

The work involved in embedding this also allowed for further engagement and learning opportunities. Now that the HOMEflex Code of Conduct is delivered and being used successfully, we are progressing with a subsequent project – HOMEflex Compliance. HOMEflex Compliance will deliver a framework for a Compliance Scheme, allowing the HOMEflex Code of Conduct to be embedded further into the industry of the benefit of consumers.