Evaluation of the Transitional Arrangements for Demand Side Response Phase 3

This document describes an evaluation of the second Transitional Arrangements (TA) auction for Demand Side Response (DSR) in the UK's Capacity Market, which aims to foster the development of DSR for a decarbonized electricity grid. Employing a realist and theory-based approach, the evaluation examines outcomes, causal mechanisms, design, and value for money. It reveals that the second TA auction attracted less capacity than the first, with 293 MW of turn-down DSR, mainly from aggregators who saw it as a business opportunity. Influencing factors for participation included site suitability, cost-effectiveness, and perceived risks, while non-participation was linked to insufficient returns, operational constraints, and preferences for larger loads. The high clearing price was due to pre-auction dropouts and precautionary overfilling of Capacity Market Units (CMUs). The evaluation also highlights the need for further research on turn-down DSR's nature and the TA's effectiveness, which will be explored in a future Phase 4 report. Early findings indicate that the TA has promoted learning and service expansion among some aggregators, but further assessment is required to determine its value for money and the future role of turn-down DSR in the Capacity Market. **This summary was written by an AI model and therefore should not be considered a definitive summary of the report. If you are aware of inaccuracies, please email evaluation.registry@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.**

Description

• Lead department: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
• Evaluation stage: A complete evaluation report
• Other departments: No other departments listed
• Evaluation types: Impact evaluation
• Impact methods: Theory-based methods
• Theory-based methods: Realist evaluation
• Grant information: This intervention is not distributing funding via a grant
• Government Major Project information: This intervention is not a major project
• Policies: No policies provided

Event Dates

• Event Name: Publication of final results
• Event date: August 2018

Evaluation Costs

• Cost: Not provided

Evaluation sharing

• Link(s) to published report(s): Yes
• Links to evaluation plans: No link provided
• Links to published evaluations (DEBUGGING): No final report link found.
• Findings: Not provided
• Permission to share confirmed: Yes