What is demand flexibility?
Electricity supply and demand have to be balanced second by second. At certain times — usually weekday evenings — demand peaks and the system comes under strain. Traditionally, that's met by firing up additional, often higher-carbon, power generation.
There's a cleaner way. Through NESO's Demand Flexibility Service (DFS), providers like Electric Miles can help by gently easing electricity demand during those peak windows. For us, that means briefly and automatically adjusting EV charging across our community of drivers — smoothing the peak instead of adding to it.
The best part? Drivers don't have to do anything. No app to tap, no plug to pull. It all happens automatically in the background, and cars are ready when their owners need them.
What happened in our first event
When NESO called the event, our platform responded automatically across the country:
- 1,800+ EV drivers across 9 regions of England were signalled to ease their charging
- 14,000+ half-hourly dispatch signals were sent to home chargers over the event window
- Around 600 drivers actively tuned in to help stabilise the grid
- ~0.6 MWh of demand flexibility was delivered — with no disruption to anyone's evening
Every charger adjusted quietly in the background, contributing a small amount that, added together across hundreds of homes, becomes something the grid can genuinely lean on. Not every eligible charger was drawing power at the moment of the event — and closing that gap, so more of those 1,800 drivers actively contribute next time, is exactly where we're focused.
Honest about the journey ahead
This was our very first event, and we're proud of it — but we're also the first to point out that we're just getting started. There's a lot we can do better: forecasting demand more precisely, sizing our commitments more accurately, and ultimately delivering more flexibility each time we take part. We've already built those lessons into our most recent events. Every event makes our platform smarter and our drivers' collective impact greater.
What this means
Demand flexibility is one of the most powerful — and underused — tools for decarbonising the grid. It doesn't cost anything to build new power stations; it simply makes smarter use of energy that's already flowing.
By turning everyday home EV charging into grid-supporting flexibility, our drivers are doing something quietly remarkable: helping keep the lights on, lowering the carbon intensity of the grid, and proving that the energy transition can be powered by ordinary people doing nothing more than charging their cars.
To every driver who was part of this first event — thank you. This is just the beginning, and we can't wait to deliver more, and better, flexibility in the months ahead.