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Vulnerable people must not be punished for being unable to take part in flexible energy use schemes, Citizens Advice has said.
The consumer charity has warned government that it must take steps to ensure that vulnerable people, such as those with a health-related need for energy, don’t lose out financially as a result of being unable to take part in schemes such as the Demand Flexibility Service (DFS).
It adds that protections must be put in place for other people who are unable to reap the financial benefits from such initiatives due to their personal situations. This includes the disabled, people with young children, renters and elderly people.
The report adds: “Some people’s barriers to energy flexibility are insurmountable. For example, without significant capital investment in things like home battery storage, households with a health-related need for high energy usage will struggle to access the value of models like smart time-of-use tariffs.
“The government must ensure that people with a health-related need for energy don’t lose out financially.
“We’ve explored long-term options for protecting households from high energy bills and we recommend providing targeted financial help to households spending an excessive proportion of their income on energy bills.”
It is one of a series of recommendations made within Citizens Advice’s report A flexible future: extending the benefits of energy flexibility to more people.
The report covers three main themes: providing better information, ensuring appropriate regulation, and promoting inclusive innovation.
On regulation, Citizen Advice calls for enhanced protections to be put in place to avoid “contract lock-in”.
It adds this will “improve consumer confidence and avoid penalising households for trying out flexibility”.
A total of 1.6 million households and businesses participated in the first iteration of the DFS, introduced by National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO), which ran from November last year to March 2023, delivering in total 3,300MWh of electricity reduction.
Citizen Advice’s report claims that the only way to fully scale up the scheme is to remove barriers preventing people from taking part.
The report concludes: “For domestic flexibility to play a meaningful role in meeting net zero, National Grid ESO estimates that 3.7 million households must be flexible on a regular basis at times of peak demand by 2035.
“In an evaluation of the service, respondents were typically older, White British, on a higher income or homeowners. In future, to reach the wider participation needed, flexibility services will need to be accessible and appeal to many more people, including those facing barriers to participation.”
The ESO is looking at re-running the DFS again this winter. Energy UK senior policy manager Naomi Baker recently told Utility Week that the support of Ofgem and government is needed for the scheme to achieve its full potential.
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