Over the winter from November 2023 to March 2024, Electricity System Operator (ESO) now National Energy System Operator (NESO), ran the second Demand Flexibility Service (DFS). This service is to encourage people to reduce their electricity use at peak times when energy supplies are low. The survey has been sent to people that took part in the DFS in winter 2023-24.

This survey is run by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) a charity that supports people and organisations across the UK to transform our energy system and tackle the climate emergency.

What are the aims of the survey?

The National Energy System Operator (NESO) has asked CSE to survey participants of the Demand Flexibility Service to understand people’s experiences of participating in demand shifting schemes, including their willingness and ability to flex their energy use. The insights from the survey will be shared with both government and industry stakeholders to inform:

• How flexibility services are offered in the future
• Modelling of customer interaction with the energy system
• Policymaking and regulation of flexibility markets
• The types of support needed so that consumers can fully access and benefit from flexibility

What’s involved?

The survey will take 10 to 15 minutes to complete. You’ll be asked for your views about taking part, any challenges you encountered and your future participation in flexibility events. There will also be questions asking about you and your household. This will help us to understand who took part in the DFS trial and how they experienced it.

Most of the questions are multiple choice. Any mandatory questions are indicated with an asterisk. The remainingquestions are optional, and you can skip these if they don’t apply to you, or you don’t feel comfortable answering them.

You might be asked in the survey if you would like to take part in a follow up interview. This is entirely optional. If you would like to be interviewed, please include your contact details. CSE will then contact you with further information about what is involved and to confirm your participation.

How do I participate?

Everyone who signed up for the DFS should receive a survey link from their provider (the company that you signed up with to take part in the DFS). It is only possible to participate in the evaluation survey through your provider’s link.
It may take a few days for all DFS customers to be contacted with an invitation. If you haven’t received your invite yet, keep checking this page. We will keep updating it with any information we receive from DFS providers.

What are the timescales?

The survey will be open from Wednesday 4 December to Friday 20 December 2024.

Are there prizes?

Yes! After completing the survey, you can choose to enter a prize draw. There are eight prizes: 1 x £500, 3 x £100 and 4 x £50. The winners will be picked at random. After completing the survey, you will be directed to a separate prize-draw page. You will need to provide your email address to participate. Terms and conditions for the survey are here.

Will my response be anonymous?

Your response to the survey will be anonymous, Except if you choose to provide your email address for an interview or your meter number to take part in future research. Both of these are personal identifiable information and if you provide them CSE will be able to identify you.

Any comments that you make may be anonymously quoted in publications, reports, web pages, and other research outputs. You will not be identifiable in any published results.

What data will you collect and how will you use it?

We will collect your answers to the survey. Any information you provide in the survey will be used by CSE researchers for the purposes of understanding people’s experiences of participating in demand shifting schemes and for modelling customer interaction with the energy system.

Some of the questions in the survey cover sensitive data such as whether you have any health conditions, your gender, and your ethnicity. We are asking for this information in order to understand who is taking part and how flexibility services can be designed to be accessible to lots of different people. Although it is anonymous, under data protection regulations this is classed as special category data which requires extra consent. We will ask for your consent for processing this data in the survey. Our lawful basis for processing under Article 6 of the UK GDPR is ‘consent’.

CSE will aggregate and analyse the data from everyone’s survey responses and publish a report on the findings which will be shared with project partners and published by NESO.

Will you have access to my smart meter or energy bills?

We would like to link the feedback you provide in the survey to your smart meter data. This will allow us to understand the factors that affect the amount of flexibility households can provide. In the survey we will give you the option to provide your Meter Point Administration Number (MPAN). This is a unique number that identifies your property’s electricity and gas supplies.

If you provide us with your MPAN, your DFS provider will securely transfer some of your smart meter data (covering the period from November 2022 to March 2024) to NESO to be analysed for the evaluation.

This is entirely optional and if you don’t provide your MPAN NESO will not have access to your smart meter data.

Will my DFS provider have my feedback?

You can choose to share your survey responses with your DFS provider, who will use your survey data to understand more about services like the DFS and help shape future products and services.

You will be asked if you would like to do this in the survey. You can still participate in the survey if you say no. If you consent, CSE will securely transfer a copy of your survey answers to them. Your DFS provider will not be able to identify you in your response.

What happens to my data after the research?

At the end of the research, CSE will securely store the survey dataset for future research purposes. We will also share the dataset with the UK Data Service, where it will be archived securely. This data can then be used by the government, industry stakeholders and academics for future research. You will be asked in the survey if you agree to your data being archived for future research. You can still participate in the survey if you say no.

If you provided your MPAN this will be securely stored by CSE before asking your DFS provider to securely transfer some of your smart meter data to NESO, after which it will be stored for one year then deleted.

What happens if I no longer want to participate?

Your participation is completely voluntary. You are free to end the survey at any time without completing it. However, once you submit your survey response, it will not be possible to identify or delete your survey data because your response will be anonymous. You can withdraw your consent for CSE to use your MPAN if you shared it. To do this please email smart.energy@cse.org.uk by 30 January 2025.

How will you keep my information safe?

All information shared by you for this research will be kept strictly confidential. CSE will only use the data in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations. Your personal data will be processed in line with the Data Protection Act 2018 on the lawful basis of consent. CSE will ensure protection of all personal information held and recognises its obligations in maintaining a system that meets the requirements of GDPR.

Click here to access CSE’s full privacy policy. CSE’s ICO registration is Z7115671.

If you would like get in touch with CSE about the research, please email smart.energy@cse.org.uk.