National Grid DSO procures 196GWh of flexibility, largest ever annual tender

National Grid's Distribution System Operator (DSO) has secured its largest long-term flexibility portfolio ever, awarding 196GWh of availability in its latest annual tender. 

That is ten times higher than the 18GWh total procured in the previous tender.

Cathy McClay,

The 2025 tender round closed in November securing 196GWh.

 It introduced wider availability windows and more service hours, helping grow the number of eligible technologies and providers. 

 The results show rapidly growing market participation and the strengthening role of low‑carbon technologies, National Grid DSO said.

 National Grid DSO is the regional electricity distribution division of National Grid, sitting within National Grid Electricity Distribution (NGED).

 It procures flexibility capacity for network constraint management and renewables integration. 

 In this context, flexibility means the ability of generators and consumers to flex up or down their generation or consumption in response to requests from the network operator.

Appropriate technologies and load points including electric vehicle (EV) charging, heat pumps, battery storage and any controllable form of power generation, and demand response (DR). DR simply means anyone who can reduce demand in line with a request. 

Cathy McClay, managing director of National Grid DSO and the UK’s first flexibility commissioner, said:

“This year’s results show real momentum behind flexibility as a smarter, more efficient way to operate the electricity network and ultimately drive down costs for consumers." 

Alongside the long-term procurement, substantial opportunities remain available in the short-term market, which is currently transitioning from a week-ahead to a day-ahead market, National Grid DSO said. 

The organisation received a particular boost from its new demand turn up service called FlexUp.

FlexUp saw 52GWh awarded across 23 high-voltage zones. National Grid DSO is the first to trial this type of service, which aims to reduce renewable curtailment by shifting demand into periods of high renewable generation. Hundreds of millions of pounds are paid to renewable generators, mainly wind, to stop producing because there is not enough demand to absorb their power in some high-generation periods.