National Grid, Amazon Web Services, OVO and Octopus Energy have come together in a new household flexibility project.
The “CrowdFlex” project secured a significant share of £95.3m in funding from Ofgem‘s Strategic Innovation Fund.
It aims to change the way household energy is utilised, driving the transition to cleaner and more affordable energy solutions.
By empowering consumers to adjust their energy usage patterns, the project seeks to align energy demand with renewable energy generation, thereby optimising the grid’s efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.
The project’s ambitious goal is to construct an advanced forecasting model that analyses domestic energy demand and flexibility.
This model will be based on large scale consumer trials, with the ultimate objective of recognising flexibility as a valuable resource while informing the design of innovative new products and services.
Carolina Tortora, Head of Digital Transformation and Innovation Strategy at National Grid ESO, said: “We believe there is a huge opportunity during this transition to build a smart flexible energy system by enabling consumers to act as a new source of flexibility, supporting more low carbon technologies and reducing consumer costs.
“The CrowdFlex demonstrator is a major step towards a national domestic flexibility programme.”
Marzia Zafar, Deputy Director of Digitalisation and Innovation at Ofgem, said: “To achieve our target of clean power by 2035 we need to look across the board for innovative solutions that will deliver resiliency, reliability and affordability at pace.”
