Flex Community™ – How flexible can we be around the times we use electricity?
Make the most efficient use of renewable energy to meet our household electricity demand.
The project is called Flex Community™ because we are exploring how ‘flexible’ households can be around the times they use electricity, so we can work out how best to match household demand to when there are more renewables available on the local grid network.
Why are we doing this?
Clean renewable energy is the way of the future, 40% of the UK’s electricity came from renewables in 2020, which is expected to keep increasing to meet Net Zero carbon targets.
Matching supply to demand
There’s a challenge! Renewable sources can’t be turned up and down as needed, so we currently rely on fossil fuels to make up any shortfall at peak times.
Reducing the energy rush hour
Demand peaks at around 6pm as people get home from work, which doesn’t always match when renewables are at their strongest.
Meeting household demand
Matching some household electricity use to times when renewables are generating, smooths out peaks in demand. Avoiding the high cost and environmental impacts of grid upgrades.
Current Flex Community™ research project
Community Solar trial
Householders in Bishop Sutton, surrounding villages and Bath are helping us to monitor the use of solar energy from our Stowey Ground solar array.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N°957837
