Flexibility Innovation Programme

The 2021 Smart Systems and Flexibility Plan and Energy Digitalisation Strategy identified key BEIS policy priorities to enable the transition to a smart, flexible and decarbonised energy system.

To support the transition, the Flexibility Innovation Programme seeks to enable large-scale widespread electricity system flexibility through smart, flexible, secure, and accessible technologies and markets. Up to £65 million will be made available. This overarching programme will fund innovation across a range of key smart energy applications.

The Flexibility Innovation Programme is part of the Net Zero Innovation Portfolio and forms a substantial part of a commitment set out in the Prime Minister’s 10 point plan for a green industrial revolution, to invest at least £100 million on energy storage and flexibility innovation challenges.

New activities under the Flexibility Innovation Programme will be launched over 2022. We held an update event on 5 April to provide further information on the Programme and its innovation activities - see the attached slides and watch this recording:

Flexibility Innovation Programme update event 5 April 2022

Innovation activity launched to date

V2X competition

On 24 March BEIS launched the V2X competition as part of the £11.4 million V2X innovation programme. This is being delivered by UKRI Innovate UK on behalf of BEIS. The phase 1 competition has now closed.

Automatic Asset Registration (AAR) competition

On 5 April BEIS launched phase 1 of the Automatic Asset Registration (AAR) competition, which aims to support the development of an automatic, automated secure data exchange process for registering small-scale energy assets and collecting and accessing small-scale energy asset data. This competition has now closed.

Interoperable Demand Side Response Programme competition

On 23 May, BEIS launched competitions for Streams 1, 2 and 3 of the up to £9.15 million Interoperable Demand Side Response (IDSR) programme, which aims to support the development and demonstration of energy smart appliances for the delivery of interoperable demand side response.

Smart Meter System based Internet of Things Applications competition

On 23 May, BEIS launched the competition for the up to £1.8 million Smart Meter System based Internet of Things (IoT) Applications programme which aims to support innovation to determine the feasibility of, and trial, Smart Meter System based IoT sensor devices.

Smart Meter Energy Data Repository competition

On 23 May, BEIS launched the competition for the up to £1 million Smart Meter Energy Data Repository (SEDR) programme which aims to support innovation to determine the technical and commercial feasibility of a smart meter energy data repository.

Collaboration platform

The Flexibility Innovation Collaboration platform is a match-making platform which brings together organisations to connect and collaborate, in order to support the development of collaborative applications under the Flexibility Innovation Programme.

If you didn’t attend the Flexibility Innovation Programme update event on 5 April 2022 and would like to be kept informed about the Programme, please email flexibilityinnovation@beis.gov.uk.

Read our privacy notice on how we collect and process your personal data.

How to apply information session

We held a ‘how to apply’ information session on 14 June to provide guidance on how to apply to Flexibility Innovation Programme grant funded and Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) competitions via our application platform Smart Survey. The slides presented are available on this page and please watch a recording of the session here.

Flexibility Innovation Programme event 14 June 2022.