NIA SSEN 0073 HOMEflex (Household or Microbusiness Energy Flexibility) Compliance

Key Activities

The HOMEflex project (https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/nia_ssen_0061/) developed the HOMEflex Code of Conduct promoting an inclusive, fair, and transparent domestic flexibility marketplace.

This project has delivered HOMEflex Compliance, recommendations for a Scheme to implement the HOMEflex Code of Conduct and establish standards, help new entrants meet the service levels consumers expect and deserve, and enable electricity networks to confidently procure flexibility ethically, encouraging the domestic flexibility market to grow in a fairer, more sustainable manner.

Expected Benefits

UK based research in 2023 from Adobe looks at the cost of broken trust. The research says “British businesses face losing a large portion of their customer base if they don’t prioritise trust, with 71% of UK consumers saying they will stop purchasing from a company altogether if their trust is broken.” If we equate this to the trust which could be lost in the domestic flexibility market, we can start to work out the benefit of HOMEflex when building and maintaining trust. Of course, as well as HOMEflex, the reputation and trust of the individual companies comes into play. As does the trust in electricity networks as a whole. If we take HOMEflex as being a third of the basis of the trust in future domestic flexibility, we can take the 71% who wouldn’t partake without trust to 23.7%. With 23.7% of domestic flexibility at risk without adequate compliance which HOMEflex can deliver, this has a value of nearly £300m per year.

Progress

The project is complete, and the HOMEflex Compliance report details nine recommendations for a successful Compliance Scheme. The report is published at
https://www.flexassure.org/homeflex. The project team have developed additional recommendations which are detailed in the project closedown report covering Scheme Design, Governance, Complaints and Dispute Resolution, Scheme Funding, Scheme Company, and Public Awareness. The closedown report is available at https://smarter.energynetworks.org.