When Storm Darragh hit in December 2024, our network in Wales was badly damaged. More than 25,000 customers lost power, including almost 7,000 vulnerable households on our Priority Services Register (PSR) — people who often rely on electricity for medical equipment, mobility support or essential heating.
Using only traditional methods, restoring power would have taken around 8 hours. But StormFlex helped us cut that time in half. We restored power to 15,000 customers, including every vulnerable household, in just 4 hours.
This showed the real value of StormFlex and the positive impact flexibility can have on people’s lives. StormFlex is now active across our UK network, helping us build a more resilient grid that better protects the communities we serve.
Image: from Storm Darragh response, 2024.
What is StormFlex?
StormFlex is a resilience tool. It gives our control room more ways to respond during power cuts, helping us keep the network stable and power flowing to as many customers as possible.
When severe weather is forecast, we work with local energy producers already connected to the grid so they’re ready to step in if needed. This includes both new and conventional power sources such as hydro, batteries and modern gas reciprocator engines.
With this support on standby, our control room can quickly activate flexible generation or reduce demand, allowing us to respond rapidly when storms cause power cuts.
In practice, this could mean a hydro plant increasing output to support a local area, or a supermarket temporarily turning off non-essential equipment to free up capacity.
StormFlex doesn’t replace manual repairs or portable diesel generators — both remain essential — but it helps us use them more effectively. It allows us to prioritise field teams and generators for those who need them most, such as vulnerable customers and remote rural communities.
Why we need StormFlex
Extreme weather can put a huge strain on electricity networks. High winds, flooding and lightning can all cause damage and disruption, and repairs can take time, especially in hard-to-reach areas.
As storms become more frequent and extreme, we need new ways to strengthen resilience and keep power flowing. StormFlex gives us more options, more quickly.
By calling on existing connected power sources, including renewable generation, we can react faster to sudden changes on the network. This flexibility helps minimise disruption and restore power sooner, particularly for vulnerable customers.
What are the benefits?
StormFlex allows us to manage energy generation and demand more intelligently, helping us:
- Restore power much faster: Storm Darragh showed that StormFlex can cut restoration time in half compared to relying solely on field teams and portable generators.
- Protect vulnerable customers: By freeing up field resources, we can prioritise support for PSR households, including older adults, families with young children and people with health conditions.
- Reduce disruption for communities: Shorter outages mean less impact on homes, businesses and everyday life.
- Support net zero: Where possible, StormFlex uses renewable power sources like hydro, helping us strengthen resilience with clean energy.
Image: Rheidol Hydropower Station, Wales
Resilience in action
StormFlex is already delivering real-world results and making a difference to people’s lives:
- After Storm Darragh, it helped restore power to 15,000 customers, including all vulnerable customers, in under 4 hours.
- Ahead of Storm Amy, it secured 144 MW of standby power, protecting 225,000 customers.
- Before Storm Dave, it secured 135 MW of standby support for 90,000 customers.
That means families staying warm, local businesses keeping their doors open and customers who rely on us most staying safe during severe weather.
StormFlex is already strengthening our network, and it’s a key part of how we’re building a smarter, more resilient grid for the future.
If you’re an asset owner in one of our areas, you can sign up to be a StormFlex provider. Earn extra income while supporting your community and helping ensure that when storms arrive, the network is ready to respond.
Contact our Flexibility team at flexibility@spenergynetworks.co.uk