Flexible Energy Pioneer Exceeds 1 Gigawatt Virtual Power Plant Milestone
Flexitricity’s milestone showcases the critical importance of flexible energy assets and advanced services to achieving the UK’s energy transition and net zero goals.
Flexible energy management pioneer, Flexitricity, announced today that its flexible Virtual Power Plant (“VPP”) asset portfolio, including both company owned and customer sites, has grown to exceed one gigawatt, which is larger than the UK’s latest large gas-fired power station.
“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. So whilst a huge milestone for us, it is also an important bellwether for the UK’s energy industry. Flexible energy asset portfolios and managed services must scale materially larger if the UK is to achieve a net zero energy system,” commented Andy Lowe, Chief Executive Officer of Flexitricity. “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.”
Flexitricity’s VPP acts quickly to deliver power capacity at scale from a diverse portfolio of flexible assets across the UK whenever that capacity is needed, allowing the electricity system to take on more renewables and make best use of existing renewable resources. Flexitricity’s VPP is monitored and managed from a 24/7 control room in Edinburgh which deploys innovative technology, including advanced AI and machine learning derived digital expertise, enabling Flexitricity to operate at the forefront of the digital revolution which is increasingly critical to the optimal management of a net zero power system.
Keith Gains, Managing Director at Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners added, “Increasing flexibility within the energy system must remain central to all decarbonisation efforts. For our energy systems to deliver the maximum amount of renewables to homes and businesses in an optimal way, we need the ability to rapidly adjust consumer demand in real time. This requires advanced digital tools and capability. We also need to store renewable energy when it’s surplus to needs and then quickly provide reserve power to the system when supply or demand varies at short notice and deliver milli-second responsiveness in order to replace the stability credentials which large thermal power stations have provided historically. The Flexitricity VPP does all of this whilst the team develops new and even more advanced products and services for launch this year. British businesses and homeowners save money, the power system remains stable and in the process Flexitricity facilitate the net zero transition.” Flexitricity is a portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners.
About Flexitricity
Flexitricity (https://www.flexitricity.com) created and now operates the first, largest and most advanced demand response portfolio in the UK and has unsurpassed knowledge of the market and its requirements. Headquartered in Edinburgh, Flexitricity partners with businesses throughout Great Britain to provide reserve electricity to National Grid. The word “Flexitricity” means “Flexible Electricity”. The company looks for flexibility in electricity consumption and generation, creating revenue for energy users and generators as well as reducing national CO2 emissions and helping to secure energy supplies. Their team is fully engaged at industry and regulatory level and has a track record that demonstrates innovation and delivery success. Flexitricity is a wholly owned portfolio company of Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on lower carbon and renewable energy infrastructure investment and operational asset management in the US, UK and Australia.
About Quinbrook
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners (http://www.quinbrook.com) is a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on renewables, storage and grid support infrastructure needed to drive the energy transition in the US, UK and Australia. Quinbrook is led and managed by a senior team of power industry professionals who have collectively invested c.USD 8.2 billion of equity in energy infrastructure assets since the early 1990s, representing a total enterprise value of c.USD 28.7 billion or 19.5 GW of power supply capacity. Quinbrook has completed a diverse range of direct investments in both utility and distributed scale onshore wind and solar power, battery storage, reserve peaking capacity, biomass, fugitive methane recovery, hydro and flexible energy management solutions in the US, UK, and Australia. Quinbrook is currently developing and constructing some of the largest renewables and storage infrastructure projects ever undertaken in the US, UK, and Australia.
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Tanya Varfolomieieva or Justin Heath