Enabled by Homely Smart Home technology, heat pumps have been used in a first-of-a-kind service to automatically balance supply and demand on the UK electricity grid, helping homeowners gain rewards from suppliers whilst remaining warm and comfortable. 

Homely, a smart home energy optimiser specifically designed for heat pumps, has completed the first full month of its new grid protection service, Homely DFS Assist. The recent cold snaps led National Grid ESO to activate its Demand Flexibility Service (DFS) and ask consumers to reduce peak electricity consumption to protect supply. This has given Homely the opportunity to show its load balancing capabilities at work. 

The results are striking. The service enables heat pump owners to easily and conveniently play a part in maintaining balance in the wider electricity network and be rewarded for doing so, without having to make manual interventions or sacrifice on warmth or comfort. 

The average household involved has reduced its heat pump energy draw during DFS Events by 800 W – significantly higher than the energy savings typically achieved by homeowners making manual interventions like pausing a washing machine or dishwasher. What’s more, the energy savings are consistent whether required in the morning or evening. 

Dr Karolis Petruskevicius, Homely inventor and Head of Smart Home at Evergreen Energy explains: “Heat pump owners tend to be environmentally-conscious and aware of what is happening in the energy space. We know many of our Homely customers have signed up with their energy providers to participate in DFS events. We launched Homely DFS Assist to help them participate automatically, protecting the grid while maintaining a comfortable home – one customer managed to earn £9.96 in an hour from their energy supplier just by using Homely DFS Assist.” 

Explaining more, Dr Petruskevicius added “Homely DFS Assist is really simple. National Grid notifies Homely when a DFS event is planned. Homely takes that information and creates a whole new heating schedule that plans for the customer’s heat pump to switch off during the event. That’s normally by pushing more heat into the home over the preceding few hours. Cleverly, Homely works out exactly the most efficient way to do this, using its existing knowledge of the heating characteristics of the home. Encouragingly, we are seeing that we are consistently able to control heat pumps such that they remain dormant during the entire event while the house stays at the customer’s set temperature. All of this is done with the customer’s permission via opt-in.”  

As Dr Petruskevicius noted “What is most exciting is how scalable it is. With hundreds of thousands of heat pumps expected to be fitted over the coming years, Homely can have a massive impact on network protection while keeping homeowners comfortable. All Homely customers need do is opt in and we do the rest behind the scenes.  If, during an event, the home does drop below a certain point Homely knows to kick the heat pump back in and revert to the original schedule.  We believe that the key to getting people to buy in to initiatives like DFS is to let the technology take the strain, not the customer.”  

These comments were backed up by Helen Boothman, Evergreen Energy’s Managing Director, “Heat pumps are vital if the UK is to reach its 2050 Net Zero targets. We’re delighted to show that Homely can also play a significant role in balancing the electricity grid and keep coal-powered stations offline”.