Tata Steel among Grid shutdown firms
24 Sep 2014
Tata Steel was yesterday confirmed as one of the hundreds of industrial firms to have signed up to National Grid’s scheme asking major energy users to shutdown their plants or radically reduce energy usage during times of peak demand.
The grid operator said it had contracted 319MW of Demand Side Balancing Reserve (DSBR) across 431 individual sites, to be available this winter.
DSBR will see large energy users reduce their demand or run other sources of generation during peak periods in return for a payment. Firms capable of freeing up a minimum of 1MW capacity on the Grid are paid fees ranging between £1,000 per MWh and £15,000 per MWh.
We are keen to promote and stimulate demand side services and will continue to talk to the industry
National Grid’s Peter Bingham
The service will be available for short periods between 4pm and 8pm on weekday evenings between November and February. ??
Contracts have been awarded to a range of businesses, including Tata Steel and electricity aggregator Flexitricity.
The companies will reduce their power demand or switch to on-site generation at periods of peak demand, if called upon.
The contract with Tata Steel will see it manage its electricity demand for short periods at three sites, while Flexitricity will provide additional balancing reserve via a sub-set of their Energy Partner portfolio situated throughout mainland UK. This incremental capacity complements that already being provided by Flexitricity for low frequency response and reserve power delivery.
“We are encouraged by this first tender round and we think that the extra security these contracts provide is good value for consumers,” said National Grid head of regulatory frameworks Peter Bingham.
“We are keen to promote and stimulate demand side services and will continue to talk to the industry to make the DSBR product mutually beneficial. These contracts will add to the tools that National Grid has to balance supply and demand throughout the winter in its role as electricity system operator.” ??
National Grid will hold two tenders for 2015/16 DSBR winter requirements - the first to be opened next month and the second in Spring 2015.
