People, priorities, and path dependencies: Governance lessons for demand-side flexibility in Great Britain's decarbonising electricity system

As electricity systems accelerate towards net zero, demand-side flexibility (DSF) is increasingly critical for ensuring operability, affordability, and equity. This paper analyses how DSF from smaller-scale consumers can be unlocked amid rapid system change, drawing insights from Great Britain (GB), a leader in flexibility market development now undertaking a mission-led transition to a clean power system by 2030. This perspective goes beyond existing studies to integrate governance analysis with technical, institutional, and social barriers to consumer DSF. GB's strategy for decarbonising power and enabling flexibility is ambitious, but the dispersed nature of DSF across policies, institutions and actors means fundamental challenges remain. Our analysis reveals how strategic planning, large-scale infrastructure prioritisation, and evolving governance arrangements risk marginalising smaller-scale, consumer-led flexibility at a critical juncture. We identify four emerging governance challenges: 1) ensuring DSF receives equal policy priority alongside large-scale infrastructure investments; 2) managing emerging path dependencies associated with technologies, networks, and strategic energy planning; 3) building a fair system around the needs of people; and, 4) improving coordination across a fragmented governance landscape. These governance insights offer learning for other parts of the world seeking to accelerate consumer flexibility. Recent GB policy is seeking to address numerous challenges, but governance needs to move beyond incrementalism to adopt coordinated policy approaches that address centralised energy system thinking, ensure equity, and embed DSF into integrated whole-system planning. Failure to address these challenges risks marginalising DSF, and consumers participation, out of the energy system. • Importance of demand-side flexibility in rapidly decarbonising electricity systems • Considers barriers and opportunities for unlocking demand-side flexibility • Details rapid, mission-led, centralised change within the GB energy system • Assesses key governance challenges for unlocking demand-side flexibility • Recommendations for enabling demand-side flexibility within rapid transitions