Clean flexibility roadmap shifts from targets to delivery

One year after the government published its Clean Flexibility Roadmap, the focus is beginning to move from setting targets to proving that flexibility can actually be delivered.

The July 2026 update points to rapid growth in grid-scale storage and the first measurable progress in bringing more industrial and commercial demand into electricity markets.

Grid-scale battery capacity reached 7.5GW by the end of 2025, according to the government, with a record 2.3GW energised during the year. Ofgem has also set out a minded-to position supporting 7.6GW of long-duration electricity storage across 16 projects, representing 137GWh of capacity.

There has been movement on the demand side too. NESO has met its first annual target for industrial and commercial flexibility, with 170MW of new capacity now dispatchable through the Balancing Mechanism and Demand Flexibility Service. Its wider target is to secure an additional 750MW of non-domestic flexibility by 2030.

The more significant change for electrification projects, however, may come through grid connections.

The Government, Ofgem and NESO are developing a package of measures intended to accelerate demand connections while maintaining system operability. That work includes alternative connection agreements, voluntary flexibility services and operational control measures, with a further update expected in autumn 2026.

At distribution level, Ofgem's 'build and flex' approach is also moving into RIIO-ED3. DSO business plans, including strategies for using flexibility alongside network reinforcement, are due in December this year.

None of this removes the need to build more network capacity. But it does place much greater emphasis on how connected demand behaves once a project is operational.

For large electrical loads, that makes controls, telemetry and load management increasingly relevant to the connection strategy itself. The difficult bit, as ever, will be turning flexibility from a market concept into an operating arrangement that can be specified, commissioned and reliably maintained.

The next few months should provide more detail. NESO is due to set out the future direction of the Local Constraints Market and Demand Flexibility Service by the end of 2026, while the government's connections work is expected to report in the autumn.