The Road Ahead: How Can Europe Scale Demand-Side Flexibility?

Interview with Michael Villa, Executive Director at smartEn

What was the motivation behind publishing this guidebook now?

Over the past two EU legislatures, the regulatory groundwork for demand-side flexibility has been laid out quite comprehensively. We now have around 70 provisions across six key EU legislative files. The goal of this guidebook is to move from legislation to implementation — and that’s where the bottleneck lies today. Many Member States are still falling short in putting these rules into practice, and we can’t afford any more delays if we want to meet our energy and climate targets.

Let’s take a step back — what exactly is demand-side flexibility, and why is it so important?

Demand-side flexibility, or DSF, is the ability of consumers — households, businesses, industries — to dynamically adjust their electricity consumption, generation, or storage in response to price signals or grid needs. It’s made possible by digital technologies and decentralised energy resources in homes, offices, SMEs and industries such as heat pumps, batteries, EVs, demand management solutions that are capable of reacting to external signals. DSF reduces system costs, strengthens energy security, and helps us integrate more renewables in a smart and efficient way.

Watch the video explanation of DSF on YouTube

Despite this potential, DSF is still underutilised across Member States. What are the biggest obstacles?

There are several key barriers. First, fragmented market rules that prevent flexibility providers from operating efficiently across borders. Second, limited consumer engagement — many people don’t even know they can participate in DSF. And third, the lack of clear business cases for flexibility service providers. Without access to markets or sufficient revenue streams, it’s difficult for the industry to scale.

How does the EU’s legislative framework support DSF? Is it fit for purpose?

The framework is robust — it’s not about needing more laws on an EU level. The EU Electricity Market Reform, for instance, explicitly prioritises flexible demand and aims to improve access to markets. But the issue is the speed and consistency of implementation. National legislation often lags behind, or creates barriers to fair access and participation. That’s why our guidebook is so essential — it shows national actors exactly how to translate EU provisions into effective national laws.

What are the real-world benefits of enabling DSF at scale?

They’re huge. Our report shows DSF can cut renewable energy curtailment by 61%, save 37.5 million tonnes of CO2 annually, and reduce the need for 60 GW of new peak capacity — that’s €2.7 billion saved every year. On top of that, flexible consumers could see direct savings of over €71 billion annually, while all consumers would benefit from lower wholesale prices and reduced system costs — more than €300 billion each year.

This guidebook targets national policymakers, regulators, and system operators. What’s your message to them?

This is a one-stop-shop. If you want to know exactly how to implement DSF rules efficiently and without delay, this guidebook is for you. It’s practical, actionable, and built for those who have a direct role in shaping national energy markets. We want to empower these actors to overcome the common barriers and accelerate DSF uptake.

Are there any Member States already leading the way?

France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Great Britain have made strong progress. They’ve implemented supportive policies, opened up markets to aggregators, and invested in consumer engagement. Other countries can learn from these examples and adapt their approaches accordingly.

How is this guidebook different from past reports or analyses on flexible demand?

This is the first publication that focuses solely on the implementation side. Previous reports highlighted the value of DSF or analysed its technical potential — but this guidebook is about action. It gives national stakeholders the tools they need to activate DSF in their own systems, based on EU rules already in place.

Where can interested stakeholders find the full guidebook?

The full guidebook is available on the smartEn website and can be downloaded directly here. We encourage everyone working on the clean energy transition to use it — because implementing demand-side flexibility isn’t just a regulatory task, it’s a strategic necessity for Europe’s energy future.

This publication was made possible thanks to The Smarter E Europe.