RWE partner pushes case for diesel as back-up power

Edinburgh-based Flexitricity is using businesses’ standby diesel generators – among the most carbon-intensive, air-polluting forms of electricity generation – to provide back-up power to National Grid. It claims this will bring significant greenhouse gas benefits, although this is difficult to substantiate.

Flexitricity has been providing back-up services to National Grid since 2008. It sets up ‘smart’ connections with its clients’ sites to control them in response to the grid’s needs by temporarily lowering power use or turning on generation.