Flexitricity has announced that the portfolio of flexible energy assets under its management has grown to more than 1GW.
The aggregator said the “virtual power plant” has almost doubled in size over the last three years and is now bigger than many utility-scale gas-fired power stations.
The portfolio features a wide range of assets, including grid-connected battery storage and various ‘behind-the-meter’ sources of flexible demand. Flexitricity manages the assets on behalf of numerous private and public sector customers such as supermarkets, manufacturers, hospitals, universities and local authorities.
The virtual power plant (VPP) is operated from its 24/7 control in Edinburgh and bid into multiple markets, including frequency response auctions, the Balancing Mechanism, local flexibility tenders and the Capacity Market.
Flexitricity chief executive Andy Lowe said: “I am immensely proud that the Flexitricity team, in partnership with our many customer businesses across the UK, has grown our flexible virtual power plant portfolio to over one gigawatt, which I believe is the largest of its type in the UK today.
“One gigawatt is the equivalent of avoiding the need to build a utility scale fossil-fuelled power station as the UK progresses its energy transition.”
He continued: “Our VPP portfolio has been developed over the last 15 years, but significantly, it has almost doubled in the past three years, and we are expecting it to double again in the coming few years.
“We have worked incredibly hard to deliver this growth milestone, and it is a clear signal that the market now places real value on having flexibility within the UK’s energy system.”