The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator jointly published a Clean Flexibility Roadmap update, following the original roadmap of July 20251. The update reports progress against that plan and sets out new commitments, with a Roadmap Forum running in July 2026 to adopt the approaches, progress indicators and commitments it contains1.
The original roadmap set out government's vision for clean flexibility, and NESO scenario modelling cited in the update suggests an eight-fold increase in clean flexibility capacity from 2024 to 20501. The update states that UK grid-scale battery storage power capacity reached 7.5GW in 2025, with a record 2.3GW energised in that year alone1. By mid-June 2026, Ofgem and Elexon had overseen the migration of more than 11.3 million smart meters to half-hourly settlement, and a third of Britain's electricity metering systems now operate under half-hourly settlement arrangements1.
On 26 June 2026, Ofgem published its minded to position to provide cap and floor investment support schemes to 7.6GW of new Long Duration Electricity Storage projects, across 16 projects amounting to 137GWh of storage capacity1. The update says the new capacity is mostly pumped storage hydro and lithium-ion batteries, and also includes a compressed air energy storage project and a vanadium redox flow battery1. In June 2026, UKRI invited tenders for up to £25m of initial funding for innovation in consumer-led flexibility1.
The update also lists new commitments, including government assessing the feasibility of consumers accessing support for low carbon technologies using a flexible tariff with an opt-out, and taking primary legislative powers when parliamentary time allows to enable removal of final consumption levies for demand turn up1.
"The Roadmap's scope includes short and long duration flexibility technologies, as well as broader policies to accelerate the growth of flexibility capacity"
Separate figures on the scale of the flexibility requirement come from E.ON Next, which states that Britain had 24GW of flexibility capacity in 2023 and needs between 51 and 66GW by 2030, with NESO's central estimate at 55.2GW by 2030 rising to around 204GW by 20502. The same page states that the Demand Flexibility Service launched as an emergency winter measure in 2022, became year-round in November 2024, and expanded in April 2026 to add bi-directional flexibility2. It reports that around 2 million households and businesses were registered with providers by the end of winter 2024-252. These figures are not given in the government update.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Grid-scale battery storage power capacity, 2025 | 7.5GW | 1 |
| New battery capacity energised in 2025 | 2.3GW | 1 |
| Smart meters migrated to half-hourly settlement | more than 11.3 million | 1 |
| LDES projects in Ofgem minded to position | 7.6GW across 16 projects, 137GWh | 1 |
| Flexibility capacity needed by 2030 | 51 to 66GW | 2 |
Why it matters for households
Flexibility means shifting when electricity is used or exported, so that demand follows available supply. For a household, the practical link is the metering and settlement arrangements behind a tariff: half-hourly settlement is the foundation for tariffs that price electricity differently across the day1. The update states that flexible consumer tariffs "will offer households the opportunity to control their demand to lower their bills"1. It also states that consumer-led flexibility can reduce bills for those who choose to flex usage, while reducing system costs to the benefit of all billpayers1.
Storage and demand turn up matter for homes with batteries and electric vehicles. The update says government will take primary legislative powers, when parliamentary time allows, to enable removal of final consumption levies for demand turn up, which it says supports the use of consumer-led flexibility in addressing network constraints and boosts the commercial case for bidirectional electric vehicle chargers and domestic batteries1. It also commits to future-proofing technical specifications for energy smart appliance interoperability so they can be expanded to incorporate bidirectional electric vehicle charging and Home Energy Management Systems1.
The update cites the Warm Homes Plan, which it says will deliver £15bn of public investment in heat pumps, solar panels, batteries and more, to upgrade up to 5m homes and lift up to a million families out of fuel poverty by 20301. It also refers to a trial offering discounted power during constrained periods so more of the extra electricity can be used rather than wasted1.
What happens next
Government expects to introduce secondary legislation in Parliament later in 20261. NESO will publish skip rate figures for clean flexibility behind thermal constraints by Q3 2026, and will connect the CrowdFlex innovation project outputs within a sandbox environment to live and near-real-time data sources by June 20271. Defra plans to consult in summer 2027 on detailed regulatory policy proposals1. The update also notes that May 2026 marked the start of negotiations between the UK and the European Commission on UK participation in the EU Internal Electricity Market1.