Commissioned by the University of Strathclyde, Regen has been synthesising insights from across the EnergyREV programme of research, to share evidence-based recommendations for growing smart local energy systems across the UK.
Project duration: March 2023 – March 2024
Project lead: Rebecca Ford, Head of Demand and Flexibility
EnergyREV is a research consortium of more than 90 researchers from 22 UK universities to deliver research that supports the uptake and impact of Smart Local Energy Systems (SLES). It was funded under Innovate UK’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution (PFER) programme, which set out to demonstrate the viability, impact and future prospects of smart local energy systems. From 2018-2023, the consortium produced more than 60 reports and countless more academic papers.
In this project, Regen has pulled together key insights from across EnergyREV’s research into a report, Lessons from EnergyREV: The role of smart local energy systems in a net zero future. This provides evidence-based recommendations for UK and devolved governments, Ofgem and those working to deliver smart energy places.
SLES bring together energy supply, storage, heat, transport and buildings in a local area. They connect them in a smart way using data and digital technologies and provide new ways for people, communities and other local stakeholders to get involved. They can deliver many important local and national outcomes, including:
This work highlights seven key building blocks necessary for unlocking the value in SLES, and provides a series of recommendations for government policymakers, Ofgem, SLES developers, SLES programme funders, and educators and qualifying bodies. These recommendations outline steps that these different stakeholders can take to deliver the seven SLES building blocks and unlock a wide range of value for a variety of energy system stakeholders.
Insights drawn across the seven SLES building blocks revealed cross-cutting challenges. To address these, and ensure SLES are successful and flourish across the UK, key next steps include:
The final report, Lessons from EnergyREV: The role of smart local energy systems in a net zero future, will be launched at an online event on March 26, which will include responses and perspectives from key stakeholders. You can sign up here.
For more information on this area of work, please reach out to Regen’s Head of Demand and Flexibility, and EnergyREV Research Director, Rebecca Ford.
Project duration: November 2021 to March 2022
Regen was commissioned by ENA to revise and refresh the strategy to ensure that network innovation continues to be coordinated, focused on the key priorities for the energy system and delivers benefits to energy consumers.
The innovation landscape has evolved since the network innovation strategies were last published in 2020 and so have the priorities and views of energy network stakeholders. With the input and feedback of a diverse group of stakeholders, we’ve ensured that the underlying principles, themes and focus areas that guide network innovation continue to tackle our biggest challenges for 2022 and beyond. Stakeholder feedback has shaped every section of this strategy and we thank all those who were involved throughout.
The aim of the strategy is to enable stakeholders to understand the key priorities for network innovation and how to get involved. You’ll find this information, and lots more, in the strategy and you can also explore these concepts by navigating the interactive infographics below.
You can read the full 2022 Energy Networks Innovation Strategy by clicking the image below.
Stakeholder engagement:
The development of the 2022 Energy Networks Innovation Strategy was underpinned by an extensive stakeholder engagement process, and we thank everyone who gave their time and thoughts to help shape the future of network innovation.
We first invited stakeholder views with the launch of an online consultation and associated webinar where we asked for feedback on the proposed updates to the principles and themes governing network innovation for 2022. We heard from 138 of you and at least 80% of you agreed with our proposed revisions to each of the innovation themes. The online consultation summary report can be read here.
View the slides from the webinar here. The recording from the webinar can be watched below.
We then ran two workshops in early 2022, attended by 199 stakeholders, to explore in detail the key focus areas sitting underneath the themes. These focus areas are intended to help innovators better understand how they can collaborate on network innovation projects by clearly laying out the priorities within each theme. The workshop summary report can be read here.
Within the strategy, we’ve included a high-level guide which maps out the key stages involved in delivering an innovation project from start to finish. We hope this will help the innovation community better understand how to collaborate with the networks to solve some of the biggest challenges faced by the industry.
Regen was delighted to attend the Energy Innovation Summit on 28-29 September 2022, having worked on the content for the event. Previously known as the Energy Networks Innovation Conference (ENIC), this year’s event has been rebranded to The Summit as part of a new collaboration with BEIS, Innovate UK, Ofgem and Regen, opening the UK’s leading energy innovation event up to wider industry as well as attracting new domestic and international delegates. You can watch the livestreamed sessions here.
We worked with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Ofgem and Innovate UK to support with the development of the UKs first Energy Digitalisation Strategy. We developed ways to visualise and communicate a complex subject area using infographics.
Project duration: March 2021 – June 2021
The use of energy data has huge potential to support and accelerate our transition to net zero. For example, the digitisation of energy infrastructure assets will enable better management and planning, which is essential for integrating a growing number of low carbon technologies. Making energy data open, at the same time as improving its quality, accessibility and interoperability, will allow innovators, academics, local authorities, policy makers and many others to make more informed decisions, as well as develop new products and services that can help us decarbonise.
The Energy Digitalisation Strategy is available to download here.
Regen helped visualise the whole strategy through the following graphic, which summarises the approaches and actions required to overcome barriers.
We also worked with BEIS, Ofgem and Innovate UK to explore how a consumer journey could be improved through further digitalisation of the energy sector. We chose a consumer heating scenario. The following interactive infographic shows how a consumer journey could interact with network operators, innovators and a number of different data systems and services. You can also explore the graphic here.
Regen supported UK Power Networks in developing its open data offering. The aim was to develop a collaborative community of open data users who could help shape and develop the data services provided by UKPN.
Project duration: June 2021 to November 2022
As we progress to net zero, the electricity networks will be required to connect significantly more low carbon technologies and to intelligently plan and manage their networks. Opening up electricity network data can enable innovators to create new products and services, it can drive up performance and deliver benefits for customers. Open data will play an important part in enabling smarter and more efficient ways of working.
Regen worked with users and stakeholders to raise awareness of the opportunities and to identify:
What do people want data for (the use case)? And what other ideas can we come up with?
How do they want to access it (the user design requirements)? And can we design the perfect service together?
We engaged through multiple channels during 2021 and 2022 to reach as many interested groups as possible.
Activity to date
You can find out more by taking a look at the following videos and publications (the most recent first).
In November 2022, UK Power Networks published a Local Authority Data Page on its Open Data Portal, compiling work that Regen led to prioritise datasets needed for Local Area Energy Plans. This piece of work was informed by direct stakeholder engagement with Essex County Council and Greater London Authority to identify the 30 most pressing planning challenges faced by local government, and the datasets needed to address them. The 153 datasets that were identified as part of this research can be seen on the Local Authority Data Page
Between December 2021 and January 2022, we looked more closely at how DNO data can support planning for net zero. The findings of this work are summarised in the following report:
The raw data from the online survey is openly available here under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.
The launch of UK Power Networks’ data portal:
You can also watch the launch webinar for the Enabling open energy data programme below:
During the launch webinar, we asked stakeholders about what was most important to them and how they would like to engage going forward. The findings from this exercise are summarised in the report below:
Regen’s first contribution to the project was a high-end literature review of stakeholder engagement findings in open energy data to date to inform future engagement. The review of literature on open data engagement in the energy sector can be read here:
The data that sits behind the analysis of use cases is available here.
Regen is working with Devon County Council to set up a Devon renewable electricity tariff that supports local, preferably community owned, generation.
Project duration: June 2020 to present
Regen has been working with local authorities, community groups and licensed suppliers for many years to explore different approaches to local supply. The main problem we always come up against is that, despite it making sense to balance generation and demand locally, there are no financial benefits from doing so within current regulations (unless you have a private wire network).
Plus, without widespread rollout of smart meters and half hourly settlement of domestic and small commercial customer bills, there is no incentive for customers to shift their demand to times of high local generation through smart tariffs.
But instead of waiting for the situation to change, we are working with Devon County Council and a number of licensed suppliers to set up a simple, flat rate tariff that is a fraction higher than the going rate and enables them to buy their equivalent annual consumption from local generators. We are also looking for a supplier that is willing to contribute a little extra to the pot in return for help recruiting (hopefully) lots of ‘sticky’ customers.
The ultimate goal is for the supplier to be able to offer new community owned generation projects a higher power purchase agreement (PPA) that enables them to be built, when they otherwise would not have been able to.
This is the briefing that we shared with licensed suppliers to stimulate conversations about what is and isn’t possible. The briefing sets out what we wanted the tariff to achieve and the potential role of the supplier.
Devon Renewable Electricity Tariff Briefing
Project duration: July – September 2020
Regen worked with UK Research and Innovation and Energy Systems Catapult to explore how open data can enable greater innovation in local energy systems.
We explored the opportunities for using data for local energy systems and identified the challenges that stakeholders had that could be met through data solutions. In doing so we hoped to support innovation for net zero and investment in the green recovery.
Some of the ways in which data could be better used are:
But we knew there are many more use cases out there. So, we asked stakeholders for their views through an online survey and two workshops. The findings are reflected in the final outputs, available here.
The key findings were shared at the ISCF Modernising Energy Data Competition briefing on 22 September, hosted by UK Research and Innovation, the recording of which can be found below
The purpose of this exercise was to help stimulate innovation to provide real-world solutions to the challenges we are facing. UK Research and Innovation has launched a competition to support exactly that with up to £150k for a feasibility study in the first phase. You can find out more about the competition here.
‘Building local economic resilience through democratic local energy models’
Project duration: May 2016 to December 2017
Changes in government policy have made it much more challenging for community energy groups to deliver projects.
We engaged extensively with our community energy network following policy changes in 2015. Despite the challenging policy environment, our experience was that, far from giving up, community groups were even more determined to innovate and find new ways to deliver their energy projects to address climate change, social and economic concerns.
We received a grant from the Friends Provident Foundation to support three community groups to develop new business models in community heat, energy storage and local supply.
Working in partnership with Forum for the Future, 10:10 and Community Energy England, we reviewed UK and international local energy models. We invited community energy organisations across the UK to come forward with ideas, and selected three front runner post-FIT projects, working with these groups intensively to explore the viability and develop replicable business models.
The models explored in depth were:
The project aimed to generate as much learning as possible, and to share it with community energy groups, policy makers, regulators and other stakeholders nationally. Specifically, the project produced:
You can read the white paper here.
Project duration: October 2014 to February 2017
Regen worked with Western Power Distribution (WPD), Wadebridge Renewable Energy Network (WREN) and Tempus Energy to trial a Sunshine Tariff in Wadebridge, Cornwall.
The trial looked to understand how different customers engage with a cheaper daytime tariff and how active they become in changing their consumption patterns in response to this price signal. The project aimed to resolve network capacity issues in the local area by incentivising customers to use electricity between 10am and 4pm in the summer months, which is often when solar generation is at its greatest.
The findings from the trial are set out in a number of reports (click to download):
And you can listen to the team talk about the trial in the Sunshine Tariff webinar. Please note that there is no sound for the first one and a half minutes.
The team were not able to answer all the questions during the webinar, so a Frequently Asked Questions document was compiled.
Project lead: Tamar Bourne
Contact: tbourne@regen.co.uk
