Your equipment, earning
A virtual power plant for your business
The batteries, EV chargers, heating, cooling and machines you already own can earn when the grid is tight. We connect them, run them in the energy markets, and pay you.
Approved with every UK distribution network operator (DNO) and NESO.
What is a virtual power plant?
Great Britain's grid balances supply and demand every second. A virtual power plant is the demand side made dispatchable: thousands of flexible assets, your cold store, your EV chargers, your battery, acting as one power station the grid can call on and pay.
You do not trade anything yourself. We aggregate your flexibility with other clients, bid it into the markets, dispatch it within rules you set, and pay you on a single monthly statement.
NESO, the National Energy System Operator, expects flexible capacity to roughly equal UK peak demand by 2030. The businesses connected earliest earn longest.
Most clients stack the demand side response revenue streams and earn 3 to 6 times more than one scheme alone.
How it works
Three steps, and the heavy lifting is ours.
- 01
Connect your assets
We connect the equipment that can flex: batteries, EV chargers, heating and cooling, refrigeration, compressors, pumps and CHP (combined heat and power). Dispatch hardware comes under our capex, with no upfront cost.
- 02
We operate the virtual power plant
Our 24/7 control room registers your sites, runs the opt-in decisions and handles every dispatch. You control what is allowed to flex, and production always comes first.
- 03
You get paid
Up to four revenue streams stack on the same megawatt hour. We reconcile every settlement and pay you on a single monthly statement.
What a flex event looks like
One real event, step by step. The grid gets busy, so we pre-cool the freezer, then switch it off for an hour or two. The food stays cold, and every kW you do not use earns money.
network
4
revenue streams on the same MWh
3 to 6x
more than one scheme alone
10 kW
minimum size per asset
4-12 wks
to first revenue (DFS and DNO)
What your flexibility can earn
Four revenue streams can stack on the same flexible load. The figures below are the real programme rates behind our demand side response guide.
| Revenue stream | What it pays | Minimum size |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity Market | £20 to £60 per kW per year at recent auctions | 1 MW aggregated (we aggregate you with other clients) |
| Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), run by NESO | Cleared up to £1,290/MWh on the headline winter 2024/25 event | 100 kW per unit |
| Local flexibility tenders, run by DNOs | Typically around £50,000 per MW per year | 10 kW per asset |
| Bill-side schemes (EII, NCC, BICS and the Climate Change Levy) | Cuts the levies and network charges on the bills of eligible energy-intensive businesses | Eligibility assessed site by site |
Programme rates as published for recent auctions and events; your assessment shows the figures for your sites. See what each asset type can earn.
more money
than earning from just one scheme, on the very same asset.
Three ways a flexible asset earns
Whether it is a battery, a freezer or an HVAC system, your asset stores power when it is cheap and works hardest when it is dear. The day and month views below are illustrative.
Worked through for a site open roughly 08:00 to 20:00 using about 1,200 kWh a day, with a 400 kW asset shifting roughly 300 kWh out of the peak. Both costs climb through the day; the asset just avoids the dear peak. Prices as above, figures rounded and illustrative.
Charge when cheap, save hardest at peak
Fill up overnight when power is cheap and the grid has spare. Trickle through the busy mid-price hours. Then run on stored energy through the peak, when power costs the most.
Paid to step in when the grid is tight
Sometimes the grid runs short at an unexpected time, even in the mid-price hours. We discharge your asset hard for that short window and you get paid for it, then recharge in time to still cover the peak.
Charge for free, or get paid to take it
On windy or sunny spells the grid has more power than it needs and the price can fall to zero, or below. We fill your asset right up in that window, so you store energy for free, or even get paid to take it.
Equipment that can join
If a load can shift by minutes or shed for a short window without hurting operations, it can probably earn. Half-hourly metering is required; from there, assets join from 10 kW.
- Battery storage
- EV charging
- HVAC
- Refrigeration
- Compressors and pumps
- Batch processes and CHP
Real examples from the programme
- A 500 kW cold-storage warehouse earning around £15,000 a year from Capacity Market, DFS and local flexibility.
- An EII-eligible plastics manufacturer saving £150,000 to £225,000 a year through EII and NCC, with the Capacity Market layered on top as a separate revenue line.
- A hospital trust earning £24,000 a year on its 2 MW combined heat and power (CHP) engine, with theatre load excluded from flexing entirely.
Virtual power plant questions
- What is a virtual power plant?
- A virtual power plant joins up many smaller flexible assets, batteries, EV chargers, heating and cooling, industrial loads, and runs them together as one power station. The grid pays for that flexibility because it is cheaper and cleaner than firing up a real power plant.
- Will it disrupt our operations?
- No. You define what is allowed to flex and when, and production always takes priority. Most flexing is equipment you would not notice: a cold store drifting inside its safe band, or EV charging shifting by an hour.
- What does it cost to join?
- Nothing upfront. Dispatch hardware is supplied and installed under our capex, and we earn from a share of the revenue we create, so we only do well when you do.
- How quickly does revenue start?
- The Demand Flexibility Service and DNO flexibility typically pay within 4 to 12 weeks of connection. The Capacity Market runs on auction timetables, so that layer takes 5 to 17 months to begin.
- How is this different from a normal energy contract?
- It sits alongside your supply contract rather than replacing it. Your supplier keeps billing you for the energy you use; the virtual power plant pays you separately for the demand you can shift or shed.
- Who holds the market contracts?
- We do. Purely Energy is the registered Capacity Provider, approved with every UK distribution network operator (DNO), the regional companies that run the local wires, and with NESO, the National Energy System Operator, at transmission level. No broker handover, no aggregator middle-man on top of us.
More detail in the full virtual power plant FAQ. Running assets at home instead? See the household demand flexibility page.
Find out what your sites could earn
A flexibility assessment names the revenue streams your assets qualify for and sizes the income, before you commit to anything. Pair it with Purely Insights for the half-hourly baseline data the markets need.