National Grid ESO expects demand on the transmission system to hit a new low this weekend and will likely need to call on its new footroom service as well as other tools to keep the power system stable.
The ESO forecasts demand to fall to 14GW Saturday night and 13.8GW overnight Sunday.
Daytime demand on Saturday of around 15.6GW, with almost 10GW of distributed wind and solar generation anticipated, could prove more challenging.
The ESO hopes to sign up more footroom providers this week to help it balance the system by either consuming more power or curtailing export.
The ESO said to date, some 2.4GW across 170 units has signed up to its Optional Downward Flexibility Management (ODFM) service, launched earlier this month. It used 238MW of ODFM in the early hours of 10 May as demand dropped below comfortable limits.
“With more volume in the pipeline and we are confident that we will sign up more providers this week,” said the ESO in its weekly Covid-19 update.
It is holding a dedicated ODFM webinar today at 2pm. Those interested in learning more about the service can sign up here.
See the weekly coronavirus updates here.
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