The electricity isn’t missing. It’s arriving at the wrong time.
Britain is producing more renewable electricity, but supply and demand do not always meet. Clean power can be abundant in one place or at one time, then scarce when households need it most.
We can underuse clean electricity when it is plentiful — then pay more for electricity when demand increases.
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Illustration: clean generation travelling towards a city. Where the network cannot carry it all, some of that electricity is restricted — and could instead be captured by batteries in homes.
Supply and demand are out of step.
Wind and solar generation naturally rise and fall. Electricity demand also changes throughout the day. The moments when renewable electricity is most abundant are not always the moments when homes and businesses need the most power.
- 01
Generation follows the weather
Wind and solar output rise and fall with conditions, not with the clock that households live by.
- 02
Demand is concentrated into peaks
Homes use much of their electricity in two narrow windows: early morning and early evening.
- 03
Some parts of the network are full
The local and regional network cannot always carry all the electricity that is available at that moment.
- 04
Britain needs more flexible storage
Storage is what allows electricity generated at one time to be used at another.
- 05
Most homes cannot respond automatically
Without storage and controls, a household cannot shift its electricity use to follow availability, grid conditions or price.
- 06
Clean generation can be turned down
Renewable generators may sometimes be asked to reduce output while other generation meets demand elsewhere.
- 07
Inefficiency has a cost
The cost of running the system in this way can ultimately feed through into bills and wider system costs.
Source needed: National figures on curtailment volumes, constraint costs and peak-period pricing should be cited here from published system-operator and regulator data. [source link]
- Renewable generation available
- Household demand
- Surplus window
- Peak pressure window
Read this chart as a table
| Time | Generation | Demand | What that means |
|---|---|---|---|
| 03:00 | High | Low | Surplus — a battery could charge |
| 07:30 | Rising | High | Morning peak — stored electricity helps |
| 13:00 | Highest | Low | Solar surplus — a battery could charge |
| 18:30 | Falling | Highest | Evening peak — stored electricity is released |
| 23:00 | Moderate | Falling | Demand easing back towards overnight levels |
Illustrative shape of a typical day, not measured data.
The people who could benefit most are often least able to participate.
Households that can afford solar panels, batteries and smart-energy technology are increasingly able to manage when they buy and use electricity. Many tenants and social-housing residents do not have that option.
The upfront cost of energy technology can exclude lower-income households. Without capital — or the property rights needed to install equipment — a household has limited ability to avoid expensive peak periods or benefit directly from renewable electricity.
“The energy transition should not be something lower-income households simply pay for. They should be able to participate in it.”
Source needed: Data on domestic battery and solar ownership by tenure and income decile should be cited here. [source link]
Two homes with the same needs and the same weather. The difference is access to capital and permission to install — not effort, and not choice.
Thousands of batteries. One intelligent energy network.
Kettle Energy is not simply installing batteries. It is developing the technology needed to coordinate them as part of a larger energy system.
01
Capture
Charge batteries when electricity is abundant, lower-cost or lower-carbon.
02
Store
Keep that electricity available within a network of distributed batteries installed in suitable homes and properties.
03
Coordinate
Use Kettle Energy's orchestration platform to manage the batteries collectively, while respecting resident needs, equipment limits and network conditions.
04
Use
Release stored electricity when demand and prices are higher, or when flexibility could support the wider electricity system.
The batteries stay physically distributed across individual homes. The coordination happens in software — which is what turns many small assets into one flexible resource.
What Kettle Energy is aiming to achieve.
These are objectives, not results. Each one is something the pilot is designed to test.
Buying more electricity in cheaper periods, and less in expensive ones, is intended to reduce what a household pays for the same energy use.
More predictable costs and stored electricity in the home could reduce exposure to price spikes and short interruptions.
Storage close to homes could absorb clean generation at times when the network cannot move it elsewhere.
Shifting consumption towards periods of high renewable output raises the share of clean electricity actually consumed.
The platform is designed so that adding homes increases the value of the whole coordinated resource.
Flexibility is faster to deploy and easier to reverse than fabric works, and it produces measurable data on the way.
Software, data and operational know-how developed locally, with the option to deploy nationally.
A model that can pay for itself as it grows, rather than depending indefinitely on grant funding.
100,000
batteries — our working ambition
If each battery provided approximately 10 kWh of usable capacity, Kettle Energy could coordinate around 1 GWh — or 1,000 MWh — of distributed electricity storage.
Illustrative scenario only. Actual capacity and energy movement would depend on battery size, availability, efficiency, household demand, operating strategy and grid requirements. Kettle Energy does not manage 100,000 batteries today.
Batteries coordinated
100,000
Illustrative capacity
1 GWh
Kettle's working ambition.
| Batteries | Illustrative capacity |
|---|---|
| 1 | 10 kWh |
| 100 | 1 MWh |
| 1,000 | 10 MWh |
| 10,000 | 100 MWh |
| 100,000 | 1 GWh |
Four kinds of value, from the same coordinated network.
Chapter A · Residents
A fairer route into the energy transition
Social-housing residents should be able to participate directly in the energy transition — not simply carry its costs.
- Lower and potentially more predictable energy costs.
- Reduced exposure to expensive peak periods.
- Access to battery technology without every household funding the full upfront cost.
- Fairer access to the benefits of renewable energy.
- Better visibility and understanding of energy use.
- Improved energy resilience.
- Reduced anxiety associated with volatile bills.
- Opportunities for communities to share in the value created by energy flexibility.
Illustration: stored electricity moving from the shared network into individual homes.
Chapter B · Liverpool City Region
An energy platform developed in Liverpool, with national potential
Starting in one region makes the model testable — and keeps the skills, data and intellectual property local.
- Skilled roles in software, data, engineering, installation and resident operations.
- Opportunities for local electricians, installers and supply-chain companies.
- Collaboration with universities and research partners.
- Attraction of investment and innovation funding.
- Locally developed energy technology and intellectual property.
- A real-world environment for testing future smart-grid solutions.
- A model that could be replicated nationally.
Illustration only. No specific deployment locations are shown.
Chapter C · Commercial
Turning distributed assets into a coordinated energy resource
The pilot is intended to validate the technology, the resident proposition, operational performance and the commercial model before any wider expansion.
- Electricity-cost optimisation.
- Demand shifting and peak reduction.
- Grid-balancing and flexibility services.
- Partnerships with housing associations and local authorities.
- Residential and commercial energy services.
- Aggregated battery and virtual-power-plant services.
- Licensing or deployment of Kettle Energy's orchestration technology.
- Data-led asset performance and maintenance services.
Illustration: how residents, providers, assets and energy-system opportunities connect.
Chapter D · Environment
Making better use of the renewable electricity we already produce
The precise carbon benefit will depend on when batteries charge, the generation they displace, battery efficiency and the carbon intensity of the electricity system. Kettle Energy's aim is to measure real avoided emissions rather than rely on broad headline estimates.
- Reduced renewable-energy curtailment.
- Less reliance on carbon-intensive generation during peak periods.
- Better use of existing wind and solar generation.
- Potential reduction in avoidable network reinforcement.
- Support for the electrification of heating and transport.
- Lower system-wide emissions.
- Intelligent operation that supports battery performance and longevity.
Illustrative carbon-intensity shape across a day. Actual intensity varies constantly.
Proving the model in the real world.
Kettle Energy is developing its prototype and seeking housing-association partners for a controlled pilot. The purpose is to test for measurable resident savings, safe and reliable battery operation, effective software coordination, and a model capable of responsible expansion.
The pilot is a testing and evidence-gathering stage. Nothing here is a result.
01
Customer savings
Measured against a baseline, not modelled and then reported as achieved.
02
Battery and platform performance
Safe, reliable operation of the hardware and the software that controls it.
03
Energy shifted away from peak
How much consumption actually moves out of the most expensive hours.
04
Carbon and network benefits
Real avoided emissions and any measurable support to the local network.
Founding pilots are now being developed with UK housing providers. Participation will be arranged through partner organisations and will be subject to property eligibility, resident consent and agreed pilot terms.
Cleaner power should create value for everyone.
Kettle Energy is building a smarter way to store and use electricity. By capturing cleaner, lower-cost power when it is available and using it when it is needed most, Kettle aims to reduce bills, support the electricity network and make renewable energy accessible to households that might otherwise be left behind.
Starting in the Liverpool City Region, our ambition is to turn thousands of individual batteries into one intelligent energy network — creating value for residents, housing providers, the regional economy and the environment.
The network, fully formed: many homes, one coordinated resource.
Energy Insights · Last reviewed 30 July 2026 · 12 min read
Written and reviewed by the Kettle Energy editorial team.
Figures described as illustrative are modelled scenarios, not measured outcomes. Kettle Energy is at prototype stage and has not published pilot results. Claims requiring external evidence are marked with a source placeholder and will be cited on publication of the underlying data.