Reducing energy consumption is considered one of the best ways to mitigate climate change. But where reducing energy consumption isn’t possible, flexible energy use can be a powerful way to reduce CO2 emissions.

At Fusebox, this is what we do: we help companies save money and reduce CO2 emissions through our energy flexibility software. Here’s why we believe flexible energy use can power a cleaner future.

What is flexible energy use?

Flexible energy use is the ability to adjust the amount of energy used at a given time, according to energy availability: reducing energy use during periods of high demand and low supply, and increasing it during periods of low demand and high supply.

This can be done by:

• Using smart appliances that automatically adjust their energy usage depending on the time of day or the price of electricity.
• Taking part in demand response programs that incentivize large energy consumers to reduce their energy use during peak hours by shutting down non-essential equipment, adjusting production schedules, or using on-site generators.
• Using energy storage systems to store energy generated by renewable sources and release it into the grid during high demand.
• Using electric vehicles through smart charging at low-demand times, and feeding energy back to the grid during high-demand periods with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology.
• Using building energy management systems (BEMS) that adjust energy consumption based on occupancy, temperature, and other variables.
• Adjusting energy production based on demand with power generators such as solar panels, wind turbines, and hydro stations.

Read more: 6 examples of flexible energy consumption

Is flexible energy use sustainable?

Flexible energy use helps mitigate global warming by:

• Eliminating the need for peaker power plants, only used to increase energy supply during high-demand periods
• Making it easier to integrate renewable energy sources like wind and sun that are intermittent by nature

Energy demand fluctuates based on factors like weather, common habits, and exceptional events. Energy supply needs to meet that demand second by second, to keep the system stable and avoid blackouts.

To meet demand at times when electricity use is high, electricity providers use fossil-fuel-powered peaker power plants that are more polluting and inefficient than other energy sources.

“Peaker plants need to be able to fire up quickly. They are generally inefficient and expensive to operate,” says Jennifer Rushlow, associate dean for Environmental Programs and director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School.

Flexible energy use can eliminate the need for peaker plants by reducing high-demand periods. Turning down the office thermostat by a degree or charging an electric vehicle at night doesn’t have a large effect on general energy demand on its own — but collectively, the reduction in peak energy use is significant.

Flexible energy use and renewable energy

Flexible energy use doesn’t just reduce the need for inefficient, polluting peaker plants — it also helps integrate a larger share of renewable energy into the grid.

Output from many renewable sources like solar and wind fluctuates with the weather. These fluctuations are hard to predict, and many power plants can’t vary their own output quickly enough to compensate for changes in renewable generation.

Flexible energy use strategies, on the other hand, can respond instantly. Smart appliances can cut consumption within seconds, water heaters can switch off temporarily, and so on, to account for lower renewable production. At times of high renewable output, pumps and cold-storage compressors can ramp up their consumption to make use of the extra available energy.

That makes flexible energy use an efficient way to bring more renewable energy onto the grid while keeping it reliable.

Renewables overtook coal to become the single largest source of global electricity generation in 2025, reaching around a third of the total, and their share keeps climbing fast (IEA Global Energy Review 2026; Ember Global Electricity Review 2026). That trend makes flexible energy use an increasingly important part of fitting large amounts of variable renewable output into the grid.

How does our software help with flexible energy use?

Balance your portfolio: Maintain a real-time overview of production and consumption, dispatch controllable assets to minimize energy imbalances, and reduce costs for purchasing balancing energy.

Day-ahead and intraday trading: We help you efficiently manage your assets against your energy market commitments, with a real-time portfolio overview, so you can seize opportunities from hourly price variations.

Energy storage management: Use our energy storage management features for lucrative energy arbitrage, ancillary services — frequency containment reserve (FCR), automatic frequency restoration reserve (aFRR), and manual frequency restoration reserve (mFRR) — or simply to cover local consumption. Fusebox software automates collaboration among local production and consumption assets, while staying within grid connection capacity.

Flexible assets to ancillary markets: Use our fully automated software to provide advanced demand response services to your clients. We’ll help you establish connections to transmission system operator (TSO) ancillary services for trading, dispatch, and reporting.

Explore new revenue streams: Attract new clients, improve customer retention, and stand out from competitors by offering new services, creative ways to share earnings, and flexible ways to calculate extra value. As just a few examples, you can create value through solar (PV) curtailment during negative prices, offering ancillary services, managing energy storage, covering local load, energy arbitrage, and much more.

Conclusion

Flexible energy use mitigates climate change by limiting the need for polluting peaker power plants and helping integrate renewable energy sources.

Collective actions like using smart appliances and energy storage solutions, or taking part in demand response programs, can significantly reduce energy consumption during peak hours. Since these actions can be automated, flexible energy use is a great way to instantly account for fluctuations in renewable energy production.

Our customers have reduced their CO2 emissions by 1,500 tons using our flexible energy use software. Get in touch with our sales team to learn more about how we make that happen.