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Consumer-led Industrial and Commercial (I&C) flexibility allows large energy consumers (factories, retailers, office blocks, data centres, hospitals etc.) to adjust their net energy consumption for short periods in response to the needs of the grid, incentivised through flexibility markets.

In the electricity market, this enables demand to respond to supply, a crucial shift as sectors move towards electrification and as electricity production shifts to cheaper, cleaner, but more intermittent, renewable sources.

Flexibility forms a core part of the government’s Clean Power 2030 Action Plan and is explored in depth in the Clean Flexibility Roadmap. But, realising its full potential and accelerating the transition to Net Zero requires market-wide adoption.

Benefits of I&C flexibility

For grid operators, enabling flexibility can deliver: 

  • Reduced generation curtailment 
  • Reduced need for expensive grid-scale energy storage projects
  • Reduced costs for grid capacity upgrades
  • Alignment with Ofgem’s forthcoming RIIO-ED3 price control 

For I&C Consumers benefits include:

  • Lower energy costs
  • New revenue streams
  • Reduced expenditure on grid connection upgrades
  • Increased resilience for key consumers, such as hospitals, in times of grid stress

Data is the common thread

And yet, I&C flexibility isn’t one-size-fits-all. It encompasses a spectrum of approaches from direct demand response (where consumption is increased or decreased for a set period) to more sophisticated coordination of co-located technologies like solar, battery storage, heat pumps, and EV fleets. 

What connects these approaches is data. Granular, trusted data sharing enables I&C sites to assess what options are feasible and maximise the benefits of participating in flexibility markets. Electricity networks also need real-time, high-quality data to plan and operate their networks, and to balance supply and demand. Without this, take-up of I&C flexibility will not reach its full potential, or will be costly to implement.

Sharing large amounts of data between diverse groups or organisations can lead to challenges including:

  • Varying data formats, standards and semantics
  • Separate representations of network assets and constraints 
  • Different data publication schedules Non-interoperable licensing and permissioning frameworks
  • Issues with machine-readability 
  • Commercial and security sensitivities 
  • A lack of easy consumer data portability 
  • Fragmented data on existing I&C flexibility participation and performance 

For I&C consumers, these data barriers hold back the exploration of flexibility opportunities. They add complexity and cost to identifying potential flexibility assets and actions for I&C sites and make it harder to understand the business case for flexibility, which often leads to time and money being invested elsewhere. Unlocking flexibility for I&C consumers at the speed and scale required to decarbonise the grid will therefore require a fundamental shift. 

A data sharing scheme to accelerate I&C flexibility

There is a clear market need for I&C actors to easily and securely share data with authorised parties to assess, plan, and deliver flexibility at scale. Open Energy’s mission is to collaboratively define and develop a data sharing Scheme to support this, recognising that delivery is a co-ordination challenge, requiring collaboration to solve.

No single network, supplier or consumer can solve this alone, and implementing technical solutions without understanding the needs, constraints, and capabilities of others risks becoming an expensive exercise with unreliable outcomes. The scheme will align with wider energy and cross sector initiatives (e.g. NESO Data Sharing Infrastructure, RECCo Consumer Consent Solution, Elexon Flexibility Market Asset Register, Market-Wide Half-Hourly Settlement, and Smart Data policy) to strengthen the data sharing landscape, and develop interoperability where required. 

Open Energy brings together energy system and I&C participants to build the data foundations for accelerating flexibility. IB1 acts as a neutral facilitator and data governance expert supported by the Energy Sector Trust Framework, a ready-to-use mechanism for governing the exchange of data in a consistent, trusted, and scalable way, without the need for centralised infrastructure.

How your organisation can benefit

If flexibility has any impact on your organisation, whether as an opportunity, a challenge, or a dependency, being part of Open Energy gives you a seat at the table, where the future of data sharing is being built and to shape how the Energy Sector Trust Framework evolves to meet the needs of the flexibility market specifically.

For networks, this means contributing to, and benefiting from, sector-wide alignment on data classification, licensing, and access controls, reducing the risk of costly inconsistencies emerging as flexibility markets mature. 

For flexibility providers and aggregators, it means cleaner, more consistent data pipelines and a governance framework that makes it easier to operate across multiple network areas. 

For large energy consumers and trade bodies, it means greater, faster visibility of the options and incentives that make flexibility participation viable and insights into accelerating adoption.

Join us & your peers

To find out more about the Industrial & Commercial Flexibility use case, or to join Open Energy, get in touch with us at openenergy@ib1.org 

The decisions being made now will shape the direction of the energy sector for years to come. Those helping to shape it will be best placed to benefit from the opportunities that follow.