Discover how Flexitricity is revolutionizing the market through energy flexibility
Responsible for creating the first demand response portfolio in the UK, Flexitricity Ltd is a trusted energy partner for industrial and commercial businesses, investors, developers, utility companies, and the public sector. With an unbeatable track record in the industry, the company provides clarity amidst complexity and ensures reliable delivery, helping clients generate revenue from their distributed energy assets. Starting with a comprehensive assessment of site flexibility, Flexitricity then identifies the most suitable services for each customer and estimates how much they could earn. From there, it aggregates the site with other assets in its virtual power plant to enable participation in energy markets. Notably, Flexitricity manages the onboarding process, strategy, and round-the-clock operations and dispatch for its clients’ assets. 
Alastair Martin, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, provides a clear overview of Flexitricity’s unique services. “Flexitricity was founded in 2004, becoming fully operational in 2008. As a demand response aggregator, our main operations revolve around gathering flexible capabilities among small generators and electricity users around the distribution network. We bring these capabilities together into large groups that can make a significant positive impact on balancing the supply and demand of electricity. Subsequently, we sell this combined power to National Grid, distribution networks and in the wholesale markets as a virtual power station resource,” he opens.
Supply and demand
“In terms of our capabilities, we have a control room that operates all day and night. Using advanced machines, we control all the different sources of electricity we work with. These assets can vary in size, ranging from small electric vehicle charge points, which might provide around seven kilowatts, to large batteries producing over 50 megawatts. Thus, we operate across a wide range of power capacities. Because electricity is a real-time commodity, it needs to be perfectly balanced to the second to enable consumers to adjust how much electricity they use or consume, even in small amounts and at short notice. By organizing our clients’ assets into groups with larger capacity, we can respond to the demand for electricity quickly, nimbly and economically. As a result, the electricity system becomes more secure, cheaper, and greener. The best part is that customers who participate in this process get paid for their contribution in helping balance the supply and demand,” Alastair adds.
This unique concept was brought to the market by Alastair himself, who retraces the events leading up to the establishment of Flexitricity. “For a while, I worked in the field of large power generation, striving to improve the efficiency of thermal power stations. During that time, I learned about the tradeoff between flexibility and efficiency: the more efficient a thermal power station is, the less flexible it becomes. However, flexibility is crucial for power stations to ensure the lights stay on. As I transitioned to the water industry, which consumes a substantial amount of electricity, I became aware that consumption sites within this industry were highly flexible. Putting two and two together, I realized that by aggregating the flexibility of these consumption sites, we could offset the inherent inflexibility of large power stations. That was the idea at the time, but since then, the power generation industry has completely changed.
“Indeed, we now have far fewer large power stations and significantly more distributed and dispersed renewable resources. Today, there are substantial volumes of wind and solar energy in the system, which changes the picture considerably because renewable sources fluctuate with the weather. In contrast, large power stations can remain relatively stable until some fault occurs. On the other hand, renewables change more gradually. Therefore, our current focus is on harnessing the gradual changes associated with renewable energy. It presents us with a slightly different challenge that we are determined to solve,” he enlightens.
Strategic partnerships
Recently, Flexitricity has formed an invaluable partnership with Axpo Group (Axpo), a prominent energy trading company offering power purchase agreements to major renewable developers. “Axpo possesses the flexibility, strength and experience required to enable companies that own large wind or solar farms to secure decent, long-term pricing. When it comes to hedging over five- or ten-years’ worth of renewable generation, an aggregator like Flexitricity may not be the most suitable buyer. Nonetheless, our services become useful if a client maximizes the potential of their site by building their own renewable generator as well as a big battery to optimize connectivity. In this scenario, our role as an aggregator is to respond in the final hours, minutes, or even seconds to generate revenue from that battery whenever it is not engaged in its primary function. This includes managing peak solar or wind output. Consequently, we have written a contract between Axpo and ourselves that neatly divides our respective responsibilities. Axpo is in charge of providing secure revenue support to the site developer, while we focus on creating a nimble revenue generation capability that responds to system needs from the last day down to the last second. Such a complex endeavor necessitates extensive collaboration between our organizations, which we have done successfully thus far. By handling the intricacies, we alleviate the burden for the developer, solving numerous problems for a lot of people. We anticipate that this partnership will prove particularly useful in the market,” Alastair continues.
Through strategic partnerships, relentless innovation in aggregating flexible resources, and a steadfast commitment to optimizing distributed energy assets, Flexitricity strives to further strengthen its leadership in effective demand response while supporting the transition to clean energy.