Flexibility

The load on the network varies throughout the day, depending on what equipment customers are using. Peak load typically occurs during the early evening in the winter months. Our assets have a fixed power rating and when this rating is exceeded, we need to consider replacing the equipment with a larger unit. Often the rating is only exceeded for a few hours on a few days of the year so it is inefficient to replace the asset when it is perfectly suitable for the other 99% of the time.

Flexibility comes into play when we ask our customers to reduce their consumption during these times of peak demand. These customers will typically be large industrial customers and they will have processes that can be delayed until a time when network usage is lower, by doing this we can remain within the rating of the network equipment during peak periods and so avoid the need to reinforce the network.

Losses are at their highest when power demand is at its maximum. They are disproportionately high at these times due to the non-linear relationship between current and heat. If we use flexibility to reduce the demand on the network at times of peak load this will automatically reduce losses.

We are exploring other ways to use flex contracts. We already know that reducing peak demand will help reduce losses and we plan to investigate other times of day that flex could be used to manage losses. For example, by smoothing out the load profile throughout the day to remove other peaks that contribute to high losses.