This paper studies the distribution network impacts of frequency containment services derived from domestic-scale devices. Risk metrics considering the likelihood and severity of violations are proposed, given uncertainty in the location of these devices. A novel linearization approach is proposed to enable detailed simulations of large-scale networks, capturing MV–LV coupling in European-style networks of over 100 000 nodes. The approach combines a novel factorization of the power flow Jacobian matrix and an efficient linearization update step. The first of these innovations improves the scalability and practicality of the linearization, reducing the memory and computational requirements by as much as twenty times, whilst the latter reduces the median linearization error by at least 50% in all networks studied. It is demonstrated that rapid voltage change (RVC) and overvoltage constraints could limit the uptake of these devices to just a fraction of one percent of customers if the response is not managed. Sensitivity analysis demonstrates that both the likelihood and severity of constraint violations increases rapidly with the size of the devices used for frequency response.