Gateshead Council Case Study

Gateshead District Energy Scheme is a low-carbon energy centre owned by Gateshead Council, and operated by Gateshead Energy Company, which provides low-cost heat and power to homes, organisations and businesses in the urban core of Gateshead.

Flexitricity services

In 2017, Gateshead Energy Company started working with Flexitricity to ensure business objectives were being met in the most energy efficient way possible.

lexitricity’s role is to identify flexibility within the scheme’s site and make that flexibility available to National Grid at the right time and the right price, helping increase revenue potential for the site.

Flexitricity operates a 24/7 control room in its Edinburgh headquarters, which is connected to Gateshead’s combined heat and power (CHP) engines via a remote outstation allowing Flexitricity’s operations team to automatically stop and start the engines when it receives a signal from National Grid.

The Balancing Mechanism (BM) is one of the most important tools which National Grid uses to balance electricity supply and demand in real-time. Historically the BM has been dominated by large energy suppliers, but Flexitricity embarked on a journey to open up this market for its customers and in 2018, Flexitricity and Gateshead Energy Company made history by introducing the first behind-the-meter generation asset into the Balancing Mechanism.

Next steps

Gateshead Council is expanding its heat network and is exploring additional wholesale market trading opportunities. It is also looking at connecting new assets, including a new CHP engine, office buildings and EV charging stations.