NIA SSEN 0061: HOMEflex (Household or Microbusiness Energy Flexibility)

Key activities

Flexibility is the ability to shift the timing and location of the consumption and generation of electricity, to allow distribution network operators (DNOs) like SSEN to balance supply and demand and to manage constraints on the network cost effectively. Flexibility could reduce the costs of modernising the UK energy system by up to £10 billion a year and create up to 24,000 jobs by 2050.

Flexibility trading markets with commercial and industrial partners are already operational, but the scope for domestic consumers and microbusinesses to engage and trade is in its infancy. The HOMEflex project will work to build the trust that consumers need to engage with the market.

Objective(s)

HOMEflex (Household or Microbusiness Energy Flexibility) will work towards an inclusive, fair, and transparent domestic flexibility market. The clear HOMEflex Code of Conduct combined with an auditable yet supportive compliance scheme will work to ensure that domestic customers and small business are treated and rewarded fairly and that flexibility service providers can demonstrate their credibility to customers

HOMEflex partners, Flex Assure, established by the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE), will oversee the engagement and development for the project. The Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) will lead a research programme as part of the project, using focus groups to ensure consumers’ priorities and concerns are at the heart of the project. They will also test the design of the HOMEflex code with consumers to evaluate whether their confidence in domestic flexibility services has been positively affected.

Additional considerations will be built into the work around how to support and encourage vulnerable consumers to engage in new markets and whether flexible solutions could be deployed to deliver benefits and savings. Legal firm Osborne Clarke will provide legal advice and review scheme documentation for the project.

Expected outcomes

• a Code of Conduct for domestic flexibility services
• frameworks and business models for a voluntary compliance scheme and a mechanism for customer complaints which could include dispute resolution
• a recommended trust mark for aggregators and other market players who have signed up to the Code and redress schemes

Code of Conduct

• The HOMEflex Code of Conduct v1.0 can be downloaded here
• The HOMEflex webpage is hosted on the Flex Assure website here

Funding

NIA £331,000

Start/end date

June 2022 – May 2024

Project Manager

Simon O’Loughlin