Northern Powergrid has launched a new search for providers of flexible services across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire.

The distribution network operator is seeking expressions of interests from generators of electricity, businesses that consume a lot of energy as well as aggregators, among others.

Flexibility services can involve shifting the time of energy use, for example in a factory, supporting the local network with generation at short notice or offering up the ability to charge empty energy storage with excess power.

The fresh call is part of Northern Powergrid’s commitment to developing a customer-centric flexibility plan that benefits the 3.9 million homes and businesses it delivers power to.

It is seeking responses from customers in certain locations that can change their energy consumption or generation patters in response to signals from the network operator for the 2023/28 period.

Jim Cardwell, Head of Policy Development at Northern Powergrid said: “The government’s recent Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution re-affirms that the way we generate, consume and manage power will continue to change as we decarbonise society. As we respond to the climate emergency, our stakeholders are endorsing our lead role in reducing carbon emissions in our region.

“The need for flexibility is expected to grow as everything from electric cars to renewable generation changes our consumption habits and energy needs. Supporting our local area to reach net zero is a huge part of our current business planning activity and assessing the benefits of customer-driven network flexibility is at the very heart of that. We are testing the market and urge potential customers to come forward and see what role they can play in a zero carbon future.”