New blog post: Who needs flexibility anyway?

In a new ECCD/CREDS blog post, Ben Anderson and Tom Rushby ask ‘Who needs flexibility anyway?‘ in response to ongoing research on price-driven consumer flexibility in the electricity sector. Drawing on recent research, including the Solent Achieving Value from Efficiency (SAVE) project, they query whether variable or ‘time of use’ charging would ever deliver substantial reductions or shifts in consumer electricity use due to the ‘stickiness’ of evening energy-using practices. They then go on to discuss alterative approaches currently being tested via the LATENT (ResidentiaL HeAT As An Energy SysTem Service) project which looks to store energy as heat in domestic buildings. This requires no input or decision-making from the occupants but moves ‘heat demand’ out of peak demand periods – a crucial factor in enabling a renewable electricity system where heat is to be provided by heat pumps.