August 2019
The BESST (Bristol Energy Smart System Transformation) project designed a customer focused way to deploy smart energy and digital technology at scale. It aimed to reduce energy system costs and deliver a radically new customer experience for local energy consumers and businesses. The project was funded by Innovate UK.
We worked with a multi-disciplinary consortium to integrate existing technology and commercial offerings to reach a tipping point and unleash mainstream adoption of local energy system offerings. Our partners were Bristol Energy, Upside Energy, Bristol City Council, Bristol Energy Network, Bristol Community Transport and SeverNet.
The project aimed to create a cluster of smart homes and businesses across four wards in west Bristol, including the Avonmouth and Severnside enterprise area.
Digitally integrated within a flexibility and smart city platform, these energy consumers would be empowered to take advantage of a number of new and innovative energy service propositions, such as new smart and local generation tariffs, ‘Energy as a Service’ models, energy management and optimisation and, in the future, energy peer-to-peer trading and local energy markets.
The focus of the design phase was on engaging with both customers and new smart energy supply chain actors to validate the value propositions and confirm the technical, commercial and regulatory architecture. The goal was that, by the end of phase one, the solutions could be rolled out and form an integral part of the wider Bristol City Leap programme, which is seeking over £875 million of public/private investment to transform the energy landscape of the city.
