Consumer Led Flexibility for the Clean Energy Superpower Mission

Overview

The Consumer Led Flexibility (CLF) competition forms part of the UKRI R&D Missions Accelerator Programme, supporting the Clean Energy Superpower Mission. The competition aims to accelerate the development and commercialisation of innovative AI, digital technologies and other consumer-focused solutions that increase electricity system flexibility and help deliver the UK's clean energy ambitions by 2030.

This competition is focused on projects that demonstrate clear commercial pathways, measurable consumer-led flexibility outcomes and strong plans for knowledge sharing. Successful projects must clearly show how their innovation will contribute towards delivering at least two Gigawatts (GW) of additional system flexibility by 2030.

This competition is split into two strands:

Strand 1 Software first approach

Focused on new AI and digital tools that can unlock consumer-led flexibility at scale across markets, forecasting, automation and implementation.

Strand 2 Demand segments

Focused on end-to-end solutions for specific consumer or market segments, including low-income households, industrial and commercial demand, and residential energy flexibility. Digital and AI solutions may also form part of these projects.

Scope

Projects must develop solutions that enable flexible electricity demand to be better utilised across the energy system.

Projects must:

• support consumer-led flexibility and accelerate adoption by 2030
• demonstrate clear staged consumer-led flexibility outcomes
• demonstrate credible commercial pathways
• include strong knowledge sharing plans that inform future policy, regulation and investment
• clearly evidence how they will contribute towards delivering at least two Gigawatts (GW) of additional flexibility on the electricity system by 2030

Projects lasting longer than 12 months will be subject to stage gates that monitor commercial and technical progress against agreed milestones and KPIs.

Key themes and topics

Projects must align with one or more of the following themes:

Strand 1 Software first approach

• Multi-market co-optimisation and locational pricing
• Portfolio reliability and risk transfer
• Confidence and AI forecasting
• Feeder level flexibility and resilience
• Electric vehicle smart charging and Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)
• Heat flexibility with comfort guarantees
• Open datasets for AI

Strand 2 Demand segments

• Low income households in constrained areas
• Industrial and commercial anchor loads
• Residential scaling

Projects will not be supported where they:

• do not strongly align with the competition scope or key themes
• do not demonstrate clear consumer-led flexibility outcomes
• do not provide credible commercial pathways or knowledge sharing plans
• lack appropriate end-user or energy system expertise without clear justification
• focus primarily on literature reviews or requirements gathering
• do not demonstrate technical novelty or feasibility
• do not include measurable objectives or a clear route to deployment by 2030

Project duration

4 to 30 months

Must start on 1 January 2027

End by 30 June 2029

Award value

Grant funding request between £100,000 and £3 million

Funding rates

For feasibility studies, which evaluate a project's potential by identifying key technical and commercial challenges before further development, applicants can receive funding for eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For industrial research projects, purposeful research that develops new knowledge and capabilities to improve products, services or processes, applicants can receive funding for eligible project costs of:

• up to 70% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 60% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 50% if you are a large organisation

For experimental development projects, which use existing knowledge to develop new or improved products, services or processes through testing, validation and prototyping, applicants can receive funding for eligible project costs of:

• up to 45% if you are a micro or small organisation
• up to 35% if you are a medium sized organisation
• up to 25% if you are a large organisation

Research organisations can share up to 100% of the total eligible project costs.

Eligibility criteria

• Projects can be delivered by a single applicant or as a collaborative project led by a UK registered business of any size, a research and technology organisation (RTO), charity, not for profit, public sector organisation or academic institution
• Collaborators can be a UK registered business of any size; an academic institution; a charity; a not for profit; a public sector organisation; or a research and technology organisation (RTO)
• Subcontractors must be preferably UK-based with fully justified and appropriate costs. Overseas subcontractors are permitted where applicants can demonstrate why suitable UK subcontractors cannot be used
• All funded project work must be carried out within the UK
• Applicants must intend to exploit the results from or in the UK
• Subsidy control and State Aid rules apply