Bill payers saved more than £300m through energy flexibility in 2024, which relieves pressure on the electricity grid whilst allowing consumers to be paid for modifying their energy use.
Over the next three years, flexibility is projected to deliver over £3bn in savings. This is driven by lower contributions to infrastructure costs, reduced connection charges and the increased use of low-carbon energy sources. Flexibility is a valuable tool to optimise capacity while longer-term infrastructure upgrades are planned and delivered.
Last year, electricity networks in Great Britain secured a record high of 9GW of flexibility. In turn, a total of 22GWh of flexibility was harnessed, enough to power almost 7,000 average UK households for a full year.
The figure represents a three-fold increase since the previous year, which is the biggest jump since data collection began in 2017.
The new figures form part of Energy Networks Association's (ENA) drive to build a flexible energy grid through its Open Networks programme, which is being transitioned to Elexon, the newly appointed market facilitator.
Dr Avinash Aithal, Head of Open Networks at Energy Networks Association, said:
“It’s been tremendous to see the boom in the flexibility market over the past year. Flexibility is becoming more mainstream thanks to industry efforts to remove barriers to participation and simplify the market processes overall. The outcome of our efforts are now clear to see, with significant savings for consumers and the wider energy industry.
“Great Britain is now a global leader in energy flexibility, and I’m incredibly pleased that we are handing it over to Elexon in such a strong position. Together, ENA and industry have paved the way for the whole of Great Britain to participate in and benefit from the energy flexibility market.”
Energy networks procure flexibility services, which is an agreement between the network and the provider of flexibility to modify their usual power use, in exchange for payment. This helps to manage the energy grid as it becomes more reliant on intermittent low-carbon energy sources such as wind and solar. Last year, a majority (80 percent) of contracted flexibility came from non-fossil fuel sources, ten times the capacity of the UK’s largest solar farm.
While the majority of flexibility services came from commercial organisations, householders can also reap the benefits of using electric car chargers and heat pumps, for example, at non-peak times.
Notes to editor
- The latest flexibility figures are available on the ENA website.
- Since the first Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan was published by the UK Government in 2017, ENA has developed the UK’s local flexibility market. The government’s plan was updated in 2021 and includes the projection that flexibility could save consumers £10bn per year in energy costs by 2050. The journey of energy flexibility and the creation of Distribution System Operators (DSOs) will be explored in an upcoming webinar, hosted by ENA, on Thursday the 3rd July.
- The final figures for 2024 shows the network companies have tendered for 31GW of flexibility (using new methodology), of which 9GW were contracted. Tendered flexibility refers to the amount that was planned to be offered by networks through tenders, while contracted is the flexibility that has been secured via tenders to be delivered.
- Due to the introduction of new flexibility services and a shift towards real-time procurement, the volume of tenders has increased significantly. Therefore, the previous approach of tracking a single tender per region is no longer applicable and the methodology has been revised. The tendered volume now calculated as the sum of the all the tenders rather than the peak, ensuring a more accurate reflection on network need. This however means that the total tendered values from previous publications, are not directly comparable since historic figures are more conservative.
- Method to calculate contracted volumes remains unchanged and therefore directly comparable with previous years.
- The quantification of benefits of flexibility to consumers for last year and projections for the next three years were collated from 2025 DSO Performance Panel submissions to Ofgem from all GB network companies. Ofgem estimates the typical household in England, Scotland and Wales uses 2,700 kWh of electricity in a year.
- A new book, published by ENA and networks, contains the summary of key outputs from the Open Networks programme. It is open access and available to download for free on the Springer Nature website.
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Energy Networks Association (ENA) is the industry body representing the energy networks. Our members include every major electricity network operator in the UK. The electricity networks are at the heart of the energy transition. They directly employ more than 26,000 people in the UK, including 1,500 apprentices. They are spending and investing £33bn in our electricity grids over the coming years, to ensure safe, reliable and secure energy supplies for the millions of homes and businesses reliant on power every day.
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