The value of ‘local’ in smart energy systems
Tailoring energy systems to places holds great promise for accelerating the journey to net zero. Jodie Giles looks at what local authorities and communities are doing about it, with lessons for the future, in this piece timed to align with Community Energy Fortnight.
Jodie Giles, Innovation Lead, Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme, Innovate UK
I’ve been reflecting a lot lately on local energy systems, their importance, lessons learnt so far, and how they can help dramatically cut carbon emissions over the next decade.
Why? Because, after almost a decade in community and local energy at Regen, thinking about this from a grass-roots perspective, I’ve joined Innovate UK’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution team, to work on its portfolio of smart local energy systems projects.
We know that a ‘whole systems’ approach to heat, energy and transport will be essential to meet net zero targets, but why is the local aspect important, rather than relying purely on national approaches?
There are some obvious answers. Most low-carbon generation is decentralised, and can cut the energy losses involved in ‘moving’ energy a long way. There are also social aspects that make holistic local energy planning necessary, and critically, it is local groups and organisations that are already doing much of the heavy lifting.
Adding to the evidence, our recently published ‘Accelerating Net Zero’ report found that consistently tailoring local net zero interventions to local circumstances, complementing action at the national level, could save around £130bn in investment costs and potentially deliver an additional £430bn in wider socio-economic benefits.
Community energy organisations are on the case
Community-based energy organisations have been pioneering local energy systems for years. Mainly, they are motivated by the social aspects of energy, and by environmental impacts.
They usually start by asking ‘what can we do as a community to reduce our carbon emissions?’ and then ‘what can we do about fuel poverty?’. This drives them to look at how the community heats its homes and businesses, how local people travel, and where their electricity comes from. The number one question community energy organisations get asked when installing renewable energy projects is ‘can I buy the power please?’
Driving the local approach
The energy supply business is risky, as underlined by the 30 or so energy suppliers who have gone bust in the past year, affecting over two million customers.
Community energy organisations are also disproportionately affected by grid constraints. They can’t simply move their local energy projects to a location with a more affordable grid connection, as developers do.
So, they are driven to look at private wire alternatives, microgrids, and smarter energy solutions; in other words, local ‘smart stuff’.
Some advanced local authorities have already been thinking along these lines. Several are deep into planning their future energy systems, as outlined in the December 2021 Energy Systems Catapult report. And more widely, local authorities are joining the ‘climate emergency’ movement in their droves.
The most effective authorities are already collaborating closely with their local community energy organisations, housing providers, healthcare organisations and businesses who can support delivery.
Social benefit
In 2013 Plymouth City Council helped establish Plymouth Energy Community, which now owns a solar farm and photovoltaic panels on rooftops across the city. Owning these assets enables the community business invest in its energy advice service, supporting residents in fuel poverty.
South Staffordshire Community Energy has a neat circular twist on this. Its solar panels help fund a fuel poverty charity to visit homes, improve health and reduce visits to A&E, and they sit on the roof of the local hospital.
Also in Staffordshire, Chase Community Solar are partners in Zero Carbon Rugeley, the UKRI-funded project designing a smart local energy system for the town. They will soon be adding 75 batteries to the 314 housing association properties with solar they previously installed, reducing bills more for residents.
Expert brokers
Carbon Co-op, one of the partners in the UKRI-funded Greater Manchester Local Energy Market project, also has a ‘Power Shaper’ programme working on domestic flexibility. This has shown that flexibility could generate between 1p and £25 per year per household. So the only way to make this business model work is to provide a ‘whole energy system’ approach and become the expert brokers, helping people use low-carbon tech, systems and retrofit to stack up all the small bits of revenue that could be achieved.
Fortunately, Carbon Co-op are already experts in retrofit; their People Powered Retrofit service has supported local householders to reduce energy demand, improve comfort and adopt low carbon technology en masse.
All this isn’t going to make consumers or communities rich, and it won’t be easy, but it’s better than the alternative of catastrophic climate change.
Clearly, national approaches, funding and frameworks will underpin the lion’s share of activity in a transformation of this scale. But it’s motivated and ambitious grassroots organisations that are the engines of change. The more we support them, the faster we can deliver the low-carbon future.
Lessons for the future
What can we learn from these inspiring examples? Lessons include:
- With local ownership and control of assets, benefits can also be localised.
2. Collaboration is key; community energy organisations have the deep knowledge and expertise necessary for a smart local energy system.
3. They trusted intermediary role has value. New technologies and systems are here, from heat pumps to electric vehicles, and from smart home technology to tariffs for time and type of energy use. But how do we make sure everyone engages and benefits, not just the early adopters and the affluent? Community energy organisations and local authorities will have a huge role to play, but it will only work if we have already engaged widely, started the conversation with friends and neighbours and developed that trust.
4. Flexibility is fundamental. The ‘whole energy system’ approach requires that we optimise and use what we have more efficiently, to avoid building bigger, more costly systems. For example, being more flexible with when we use electricity could enable more low-carbon generation to connect into the system.
5. Community energy organisations act as the social conscience of the energy landscape. They think about how current and future systems impact real people in homes and businesses, and can reflect real-world insights back to policymakers, regulators, system operators and energy businesses.
Building engagement
We must decarbonise our homes and how we get around, but the resounding question is how? We can choose to have these changes dictated to us, or we can get more involved as communities and individuals. Participation builds public consent. The more we get involved, the more we benefit… and the fairer our future energy system will be.
Want to know more?
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