A shake up of the rules surrounding how electricity is traded is set to be announced today by Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark. These rule changes will free up some of the more rigid means of trading which were designed for a grid system that had significantly less flexibility than we are capable of today.

With the increasing interest in battery technology and the grid support services it can offer such as dynamic frequency response, it is clear we can be supporting the grid as soon as it has a problem. One of the ways to support the grid is to turn on more generation, for example, Short Term Operating Reserve (or STOR), or as suggested by Mr Clark today, by turning things off… cunningly dubbed NegaWatts! The grid will be able to benefit from flexible users down to the domestic scale where it is believed washing machines, fridges, freezers etc could be operated remotely via the internet to ensure the grid system remains in the optimum balance.

The great thing about flexible users is that investment in the equipment will be significantly smaller than installing the battery or other forms of generation technologies, although we will have to come up with a better term for this than NegaWatts!