National Grid ESO will use the HOMEflex Code of Conduct in its Winter 23/24 Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), the electricity distribution network operator SSEN announced on 29 June 2023. SSEN said the code will be adopted ahead of schedule, and that the draft code has now gone out for consultation1.
The Household Or Microbusiness Energy flexibility (HOMEflex) project is a two-year project with Network Innovation Allowance funding of £331,000, supported by the Energy Networks Association's Open Networks Project1. SSEN states its aim as ensuring the domestic flexibility market is inclusive, fair and transparent, with clear lines of accountability so that flexibility service providers abide by their commitments and customers are protected, respected and rewarded1.
The code was developed by HOMEflex partners Flex Assure, established by the Association for Decentralised Energy, following qualitative research by the Centre for Sustainable Energy with a group of consumers. SSEN said the code was drafted with stakeholders on an industry code working group, with Government observers taking part, and that the consultation is intended to gather views from across the domestic and micro-business flexibility marketplace1.
"I'm pleased to see HOMEflex gaining such positive exposure and that the culmination of efforts put in by Flex Assure, the Centre for Sustainable Energy, Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks and all contributing Stakeholders has been recognised as so valuable and credible that the Code of Conduct will be used by National Grid ESO this winter."
SSEN also cited figures on the wider value of flexibility, saying it could reduce the costs of modernising the UK energy system by up to £10 billion a year and create up to 24,000 jobs by 20501. The announcement did not set out how the code will apply to individual households in the Winter 23/24 service, what it requires of providers, or how compliance will be monitored; those details have not been reported1.
Why it matters for households
The Demand Flexibility Service pays households to shift electricity use away from peak times, typically through a supplier or a third-party flexibility provider. A code of conduct covering that market is intended to set out what participants can expect from the companies running such schemes, and to give customers a route to hold them to their commitments1. For a household weighing up whether to take part, the practical effect is on confidence in the scheme rather than on the payments themselves: the code is described as covering transparency, inclusivity and accountability, not prices or reward rates1.
The adoption by National Grid ESO in the Winter 23/24 service means the code will sit alongside the national scheme rather than only within the SSEN project. Households without a smart meter, or those considering a third-party scheme instead of a supplier one, may find the code relevant to how those services are run, though the announcement does not say which providers it will cover1. The wider context given by SSEN is that household demand flexibility is intended to lower the cost of running and modernising the network, with the savings and job figures cited above1.
What happens next
The draft code is out for consultation, and SSEN is holding an open consultation webinar on Monday 3 July 20231. SSEN said the increased market feedback from use in the Winter 23/24 DFS will feed into the final code and, it hopes, a compliance scheme1. No date has been given for the close of the consultation or for publication of the final code1.