Demand side response

A conference about the UK’s electricity market showed organizations are considering the future of the country’s energy sector and how to achieve a net zero economy.

Although wind power dominates the renewables scene in the Republic of Ireland and the North – and even natural gas has a bigger role to play – the grid companies of the neighbors have revised up their estimates of how much solar will be needed, after talking to the public and industry.

Energy regulator Ofgem has announced it aims to bring in market-wide half-hourly settlement across the retail electricity market – from October 2025. The long timescale reflects a sluggish attitude at an inconsistent regulator which appears to be planning an unpredictable route to net zero.

You’ll need to pay close attention to find the few mentions of solar in the long-awaited White Paper issued by the government to outline how it plans to hit net zero by mid century.

Hong Kong-owned UK Power Networks is aiming to commission 250 MW of grid flexibility from energy storage assets with capacities as small as 10 kW, on contracts ranging in length from six months to seven years.

The announcement by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of an auction which will include solar next year appears to back prime minister Boris Johnson’s claims to be serious about the nation’s net-zero carbon ambition.

Britain’s renewable energy trade body has published a report examining the state of flexibility market readiness in nine European markets. The result makes for sobering reading for Germany, France and the U.K.

All round, it has been an interesting week for the U.K. to say the least, and the energy sector was no exception. In addition to the country’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Renewable and Sustainable Energy (PRASEG) organizing a debate on the Capacity Market; a forum in London discussed grid operator’s flexibility; and a new report was released claiming a hard Brexit would add millions to consumer electricity bills.

With Theresa May’s government in full scale revolt this week over Brexit, the ECJ’s ruling that the European Commission wrongly failed to find fault with the UK capacity market mechanism four years ago, is likely to have Brexiteers on both sides of parliament frothing at the mouth with indignation.