Demand-Side Response
The deliberate reduction or shifting of electricity demand by customers in response to system or price signals; a revenue and cost-saving opportunity for flexible loads.
Demand-Side Response (DSR) is the deliberate reduction, shifting or interruption of electricity demand by customers in response to a signal — either a system-balancing signal from the system operator or a price signal from the wholesale or imbalance market. DSR is paid for in several ways:
- Capacity Market contracts — DSR providers can bid into the Capacity Market alongside generators for an annual capacity payment.
- Balancing services — short-notice frequency response and reserve products procured by NESO.
- Bill-side savings — historically Triad-period peak shaving (largely superseded by TCR), and ongoing DUoS Red-band avoidance on the forward-looking distribution charge.
- Wholesale arbitrage — for customers on a flexible or pass-through tariff, shifting consumption from high-priced settlement periods to low-priced periods directly reduces the energy bill.
Practical DSR opportunities depend on the flexibility of the load. Refrigeration with thermal mass, certain industrial processes, EV-charging schedules, heat-pump pre-heating, on-site generation dispatch and battery cycling are all routinely commercialised. Continuous safety- or quality-critical processes are not. We screen the load profile against DSR opportunities as part of a procurement audit and, where the value warrants it, refer to specialist DSR aggregators rather than acting in that capacity ourselves.
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Capacity Market
The UK's mechanism for procuring guaranteed electricity capacity in advance, paid for through a levy on suppliers and ultimately on bills.
Read definitionTriad
The three highest-demand half-hour periods on the GB transmission system each winter; historically determined large customers' transmission cost share. Largely superseded by the Targeted Charging Review.
Read definitionTargeted Charging Review
TCROfgem's reform of how residual transmission and distribution network costs are recovered; replaced volumetric Triad and DUoS residual charges with fixed bands.
Read definitionDistribution Use of System
DUoSThe charge electricity suppliers pay to regional Distribution Network Operators for using local distribution wires; recovered from customers through the unit rate.
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