Electricity-intensive businesses offered flexible energy

London - British Gas Business is offering energy-intensive businesses a “flexible energy” service with round-the-clock access to wholesale electricity prices.

The initiative is in response to calls by regulator Ofgem for energy market participants to improve liquidity in the wholesale market and facilitate access for small participants.

Claimed to be the first service of its kind in the UK, Flex 24/7 allows companies to manage their demand by buying and selling electricity as little as four hours ahead of actual use.

The enhanced flexibility could save high users in manufacturing or heavy industry hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, and cut the ‘imbalance fee’ currently paid to energy suppliers when actual electricity use doesn’t match a company’s predictions, claims British Gas.

“This product could be a revolution for an electricity-intensive business that spends tens of millions of pounds on electricity a year,” said Nicolas Grant, managing director of corporate markets at British Gas. “The benefits of the flexibility it gives over increases or decreases in demand could be significant.”

The service is aimed at customers who have expertise dealing with large, flexible volumes and who want the ability to manage their own market risk and demand forecasting. It will also benefit companies who generate their own energy, allowing them to sell excess electricity back to the grid if their demand drops.

The service will also provide protection against unexpected events.

“A factory spending £35million a year on electricity that had to close for a week’s maintenance unexpectedly, for example, would have saved £150k at one point this year, compared to the next most sophisticated product currently on the market” Grant estimated.

“Equally, a company with unpredictable surges in their orders, meaning their electricity use increased unexpectedly, could also benefit” he added.