UK Power Networks has offered contracts worth £450,000 for 18MW of flexibility. Six companies made successful bids and will now need to install generation or recruit demand-side response providers at eight locations.
The distribution network operator is attempting to manage network constraints by paying businesses with generation assets or that can adjust power consumption within buildings and processes to respond at certain times of the day.
The alternative is to invest more in network infrastructure, such as new substations and transformers.
UKPN director of asset management Barry Hatton said all the bids accepted represented cheaper solutions than building new infrastructure.
As such, the company has offered contracts to six businesses via an auction run on the Piclo platform. To fulfil those contracts, winners will now need to install, or in the case of aggregators, recruit, new capacity at Brandon, Leighton Buzzard, Lewes Newhaven, Lithos, Merton, Mill Hill, Romney Warren and St Helier.
UK Power Networks said in February that it has set aside £12m to buy flex, or demand-side response services. It is also attempting to widen the pool by reducing the minimum threshold to 50kW, enabling smaller assets to provide services.
Last summer UKPN indicated it could require more than 200MW of demand-side response to defer load related reinforcement over the next four years.
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