Standard content for Members only
To continue reading this article, please login to your Utility Week account, Start 14 day trial or Become a member.
If your organisation already has a corporate membership and you haven’t activated it simply follow the register link below. Check here.
Consumers could save up to 20 per cent on energy bills in an £8.3 million energy efficiency trial run by the distribution network and backed by Ofgem.
Southern Electricity Power Distribution (SEPD) won a bid to test different energy saving approaches across 4,000 households in the Solent area, using money from the Low Carbon Network Fund.
As well as benefitting individual households, the measures are expected to enable the network to defer or avoid costly asset upgrades. If successful, they could be rolled out across the country.
Stewart Reid, SEPD future networks manager, said: “I have worked in the energy sector for over 30 years and have rarely seen such profound changes in the industry. This project has the potential to completely change the relationship between Distribution Network Operators and their customers and come up with a valuable suite of tools.”
The trial, set to run over four and a half years, involves a range of interventions on different sub-groups, using a technology platform provided by Swedish company Maingate. These include installing LED lights, offering incentives to cut demand at peak times and providing information on consumption relative to their neighbours to encourage behaviour change. This last “peer pressure” approach has been shown to drive consumption cuts of up to a fifth in Sweden.
David Owen, UK managing director of Maingate, said: “We have found that peer pressure has far bigger impact than saving money or being green.”
He emphasised that the platform was flexible, adding: “It really is about building out an open ecosystem.”
Please login or Register to leave a comment.