For consumers wishing to be rewarded for reducing electricity demands on the grid at certain times, you can do so via your energy supplier (this who you pay for your gas & electricity bills) who will contact you directly if they are taking part in our service. Participation is entirely optional and there are no penalties linked to the service.

If your retail energy supplier is not part of the ESO’s Demand Flexibility service, please take a look at our approved provider list. There are a number of organisations who can provide access to the service by linking directly to your smart meter data which is accessed via an app or online. Please note households can only take part with one DFS provider only.

Note: Consumers will be required to have a smart meter to participate in this service, and marketing consent. You will also need to provide permission for your provider to access your half hourly electricity metering data.

DFS demonstration tests will last for one hour and will be run during weekdays with each participating provider (electricity supplier, aggregator etc).  

The ESO will run up to four demonstration tests with each provider in their first full month parties as part of the DFS, followed by two tests in each subsequent month, creating a maximum of 12 tests. 

Live events are likely to last for a longer period if they are needed and could run up to 3-4 hours each. These are most likely to be held late afternoon/ early evening on weekdays when demand for electricity is highest.

If you have opted in to participate, your energy provider will contact you before the next demonstration test or live event asking if you would like to take part in the following event. 

Each energy provider will have individual incentives for their campaigns, but a typical household could potentially save around £100 over this winter, if they participate in each demonstration test. 

If for any circumstance, including for safety reasons, you are unable to reduce your energy usage during a DFS event you will just pay for your usage as usual – there are no further implications. 

No, this service is about reducing your electricity use where you can and is not asking people to go without electricity. 

Efficient light-blubs and small appliances such as modern televisions consume very little electricity and so it is unlikely to be worth adapting usage of these during an ‘event’. 

The service is about reducing your electricity use where you can and is not asking people to go without electricity. Participating in the service is completely optional and customers do not have to take part if they don’t want to, even if they have signed up to take part in DFS events.  

We have previously run a pilot with 100,000 Octopus Energy customers with 57% of participants saying they loved it. 

At the moment, we can only offer the service to providers (Electricity suppliers and aggregators) who can deliver data in 30 minute increments, as this ensures that the ESO can verify delivery. 

This means that suppliers are only able to sign up consumers who have smart meters capable of sending readings in 30 minute increments.  

To support the development of consumer flexibility solutions for the future, we will be looking at how to further expand the eligibility for services like demand flexibility service so that more consumers will be able to participate in schemes like this in future, as consumer flexibility becomes a more automated and daily option to help consumers save on their energy bills.