Commercial and industrial demand flexibility

Orion’s Commercial and Industrial Demand Flexibility Project is testing how more large electricity users can reduce or shift their electricity use during peak periods. The project focuses initially on improving participation in Orion’s existing Control Period Demand (CPD) pricing scheme, which rewards major customers for reducing demand during signalled winter peaks.

The first phase identified barriers to participation, including limited understanding of demand flexibility, unclear business cases, operational constraints and perceptions that the financial incentives are too small. Phase 2 is now testing ways to overcome these barriers. This includes funding flexibility assessments for major customers, working with retailers and other flexibility providers, and developing an improved CPD tool or dashboard with features such as forecasting and advance notifications.

The project targets Orion’s largest electricity consumers, which represent a small proportion of total connection numbers (419) but a significant share of total demand. 

The project aims to make demand flexibility easier and more valuable for customers, while helping Orion manage peak demand, make better use of its existing network and potentially defer future network investment.

• Completed an initial discovery phase, including qualitative and quantitative research to better understand the challenges, opportunities, and potential scale of commercial and industrial flexibility.
• Undertaken early flexibility assessments with several large electricity users, supporting near-term response while building insight into customer capability and constraints.
• Designed and developed a pilot Control Period Demand (CPD) forecasting API and dashboard (via OpenADR), with major users and aggregators integrating ahead of a planned 2026 pilot.
• Engaged with retailers, aggregators, EDBs and other industry participants to support alignment and participation in emerging flexibility approaches.

• Many large commercial and industrial customers can deliver meaningful, reliable peak reduction when given clear price signals; however, capability and willingness to respond varies significantly by site and process.
• Awareness of Orion’s Critical Peak Demand (CPD) pricing scheme is limited. At some large sites, operational staff were not aware of the CPD charge or how it works.
• Further communication is needed on the benefits of partial CPD response. There is a common misconception that sustained response of up to four hours is required to reduce CPD charges.
• Advance notice of flexibility events is important to enable operational (non-diesel) load reduction, and for those with generation to reduce fuel consumption.
• Many commercial and industrial sites are not currently set up for API-based integration, with some preference among operators for simpler control mechanisms (e.g. ripple control).
• Early and considered engagement between customers, retailers, aggregators, and EDBs is critical to enable participation and support value stacking.

This is an open, collaborative project, with insights actively shared across lines companies and industry participants (for example via the Flex Forum and Future Networks Forum).

Outcomes will inform BAU implementation of commercial and industrial flexibility, toward the best possible outcomes for customers, networks and the wider electricity system.