Balancing act [demand side flexibility]

The need for energy balancing is growing worldwide as consumption grows, regardless of the future generation mix. Meanwhile, balancing provision is shrinking as environmental pressures squeeze older coal stations out of the market and new stations are being designed to suit the developer rather than fulfilling any cohesive strategy. As a result, alternative sources of flexibility are required urgently. This need is addressed by a new concept called demand side flexibility (DSF) in which consumers contribute to energy balancing. DSF includes consumption and also embedded generators, which are thought of as negative demand and often ignored by transmission system operators (TSO). While the progress in DSF has been limited, it is just only a matter of time before DSF emerges as a major provider of efficient, low cost energy balancing.