As the UK progresses towards Clean Power 2030, the financial and environmental benefits of energy flexibility are no longer just limited to the largest organisations. The rapid evolution of the UK’s energy system is providing opportunities for all consumers – and getting on board is simple.
In particular, time-of-use tariffs – which provide cheaper electricity during off-peak periods – can release value to businesses through load shifting. This can be as simple as turning down Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems for short periods.
Take Trinity House, a nine-storey office building accommodating around 500 E.ON employees in central Nottingham, for example.
After a three-month trial to test the effectiveness of demand flexibility between February and April 2025, results show that remotely turning off the building’s HVAC system between 4:00pm and 5:00pm can deliver average savings of 20 kilowatts (kW) without any impact to the comfort of building occupants.
The data example below shows the kW saving achieved at the February test event
“This simple action could easily be stepped up to a greater frequency and across more buildings, resulting in significant savings for the company,” says Dan Jerwood, Battery and Assets Lead at npower Business Solutions (nBS). “Indeed, for a business consuming around 5 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity a year, shifting just 10% of consumption out of the peak period – which is what Trinity House achieved so easily – will generate annual savings in the region of £8,500."
“The team at nBS conducted this trial after working with us to carefully consider how our building operates – including occupancy activities, rates and times – as well as monitoring weather conditions and outside temperatures,” explains Liz Twort, Compliance and Commercial Manager at Trinity House.
“The decision to ‘turn down’ was entirely ours and we retained control of the process throughout, supported by our building energy management system (BEMS) partner E.ON Control Solutions, who managed the event remotely on our behalf. I was slightly nervous about how it would all play out – but I’m delighted to report, I didn’t notice any change to building temperature – and neither did the building occupants.
“While the value from each individual event is small, the approach is highly repeatable and offers more attractive returns when we consider replicating it across multiple events over our entire estate.”
Liz’s experience illustrates how easy, cheaply and unobtrusively it can be to start implementing energy flexibility within any business.
“Of course, the cheapest kW is the one you don’t use. But when you do need to consume electricity, combining visibility of the changing cost of electricity in the day with a simple type of load shifting can open the door to making savings in a number of ways,” says Richard Jackson, Flex Futures Lead at nBS.
“This is the basis of a time-of-use tariff such as our Energy Shift product, which targets short periods of the day where the combined effect of commodity and non-commodity costs make electricity very expensive. For example, we align our peak time-of-use tariff with Capacity Market (CM) charges (based around consumption between 4:00pm and 7:00pm, Monday to Friday). So if you can use less during these peak times, your electricity costs will reduce.”
As the UK ramps up its volume of renewable generation, the need for demand flexibility is set to dramatically increase to drive down the UK’s reliance on fossil-fuel generation to balance out periods of low wind or poor sunlight. In addition to schemes for large consumers able to respond to ‘turn down’ requests at short notice, there are also new opportunities emerging for smaller businesses.
For example, choosing to aggregate turn-down volume to either participate in demand flexibility schemes – or to sell back pre-purchased power on the wholesale markets when prices peak. Either route can generate additional revenue to offset electricity costs.
“But for many businesses who are new to these more proactive ways of managing energy consumption, by far the simplest way to start is via a time-of-use tariff such as our Energy Shift product,” says Dan. “This offers a risk-free way to start making savings from shifting certain consumption patterns – and as the Trinity House example demonstrates, this can be done easily with minimal impact to your business."
To find out more about switching to a time-of-use tariff such as Energy Shift, please call 0330 912 4754 (existing customers) or 0330 912 7611 (new or renewing customers)
Data visibility is key to managing energy consumption and maximising opportunities to save. For more on software to support this process, see My Energy Coach
An effectively-managed BEMS can help to maximise time-of-use tariff savings – and also facilitates greater energy efficiency savings. Our sister company, E.ON Control Systems, can offer advice and support
For more on how businesses can benefit from demand flexibility opportunities, watch our recent video here