UK Power Networks (UKPN) has launched a new £50 million tender and is seeking a total of 250MW of flexible capacity.

It is offering contracts up to 2028, covering system needs that will arise during the next electricity network price control period from 2023 to 2028.

Flexibility is a fast-growing new market that enables low carbon distributed energy resources, such as batteries and demand side response, to provide additional capacity to help manage the network at peak times.

UKPN says it is reducing costs for consumers by managing the output of these distributed energy resources, instead of building new substations and laying more cables in the traditional way.

Pre-qualification for the new tender round closes on 8th December 2020, with the competition opening from 11th January to 20th January 2021.

It covers all three UKPN licence areas in London and the South East and East of England, with contracts ranging from traditional ones offering the certainty of a set fee for a set service to more flexible contracts that allow providers to make a decision about participating in the market closer to real time.

Sotiris Georgiopoulos, Head of Smart Grid Development at UKPN said: “We are forging ahead with a flexibility market that is open, transparent and accessible. We are now opening more sites backed by more funding than ever before and for the first ever time in the UK at every level from low voltage to extra high voltage.

“A huge part of our success so far has been because we have co-designed the market with the very people participating in it, which has led to a host of innovations such as contracts ranging from six months to seven years in length and minimum volumes of just 10kW to participate. “