Earth Notes: General Bibliography (govUK2025ESA)

• [govUK2025ESA] UK DESNZ (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero) Open consultation: Smart Secure Electricity Systems (SSES) Programme: first phase energy smart appliances regulations (accessed 2026-01-27), UK DESNZ (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero), 2025-12-01 (www) (BibTeX).
  abstract

  The Smart Secure Electricity Systems (SSES) Programme is designed to create the technical and regulatory frameworks to enable the untapped flexibility from small scale devices, such as domestic electric vehicle charge points and heat pumps. It should contribute to electricity system decarbonisation in a way that protects consumers and the electricity system, and as such is a key enabler for consumer-led flexibility that will help consumers make energy bill savings. To provide a regulatory foundation for the growth of the energy smart appliance (ESA) market and protect the interests of consumers, we plan to introduce regulations on ESAs. These regulations will: establish a smart mandate for electric heating products in scope; incorporate, with some planned amendments, The Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021; implement a set of minimum requirements in relation to smart functionality, cybersecurity and grid stability for ESAs in scope. We are consulting on draft first phase ESA regulations and the accompanying Initial Impact Assessment.
  note

  [[**CS1] [**UA1] DHD high-level points: (1) A2A is currently out of scope for SSES, but as GB demand for cooling grows maybe this will prove to contribute to an evening duck-curve / ramping issue (as the sun goes down so PV generation drops away but homes are still hot), so maybe allow scope for larger A2A units to be brought in to scope easily. Also encourage those larger units to provide the functionality ASAP eg to save users money. (2) A2W ASHP is in scope (as an EHA) but is it still in scope if it can do cooling (as allowed under recent BUS grant changes) or when it is doing cooling if it does both? To avoid the duck-curve / ramping issue above from cooling demand, that mandated grid-friendly operation should also apply to the cooling aspects. (3) The proposed evening SSES peak time from 4pm to 10pm is very broad, and likely too long for many homes to coast through thermally if their EHA is throttled back for the full peak, which might encourage householders to turn off all such default limits, so I suggest defining a high-peak or 4pm to 7pm in line with eg common GB DNO practice, within which such grid-friendly aspects are heightened / concentrated. This observation is relevant to such EHAs (Electric Heating Appliances) as heat pumps, heat batteries, storage heaters and standalone direct electric hot water cylinders. Also to EVSCPs. (4) I suggest that all EHAs of a particular type, eg A2W, should be obliged to have a common element to their installer and end-user UI/UX for the aspects around energy saving and grid-friendly behaviour, so that installer set-up expertise and user familiarity is easily transferred across products, to give users agency in particular. (5) I suggest that for the benefit of homes with domestic batteries (BESS), larger heat pumps such as A2W ASHP should be configurable to operate far as possible within a constrained power limit that is within the power limit of the batteries, to minimise draw from the grid. But such limits might be ignored for critical events such as A2W defrosting, and if target temperatures (eg target DHW and radiator flow) temperatures are not being met within a reasonable time. This soft limit feature does not require any real-time control interaction between the heat pump and the battery.]