myenergi achieves industry first in gaining entry to the UK Capacity Market

British smart home energy technology manufacturer, myenergi, has achieved what it believes to be an industry first in having EV chargers accepted into the Capacity Market in the UK without relying on smart meter data.

The Capacity Market was introduced by the Government around 10 years ago to act as an insurance policy for the electricity grid, providing protection against shortages in supply during peak demand periods. Although it has never actually been needed, it’s an important feature of our evolving energy system.

Historically, the Capacity Market has been dominated by large-scale generation, usually fossil fuels such as gas, with renewable generation not able to participate. Flexible capacity in the past has typically been commercial and industrial, such as grid-scale batteries or a steel plant that can pause production if energy demand is too high.

While domestic EV charge points have more recently been able to be aggregated to participate in the Capacity Market, they have been entered by energy suppliers using smart meter data held by these parties.

However, myenergi has now achieved an industry first by having thousands of its zappi EV chargers accepted into the Capacity Market using the metering from the EV chargers themselves.

Lee Sutton, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of myenergi, said: “This is a really important and exciting milestone in creating a truly flexible and distributed energy system in the UK. We firmly believe that flexibility markets must be open to a wider variety of players, and myenergi has proven that this is possible through the high-quality technology in our products and our innovative approach, in partnership with Axle Energy.”

Karl Bach, co-founder and CEO of Axle, said: “We were really pleased to collaborate with myenergi to deliver this industry-first, which we hope will serve as a proof of concept to widen participation in all flexibility markets, not just the Capacity Market.”

In return for ensuring sufficient reliable capacity is available, the Capacity Market provides payments to parties investing in new capacity or ensuring existing capacity remains available, and myenergi ultimately seeks to share this value with customers.