Project REACH – Rural Energy and Community Heat – was awarded funding through Round 3 of Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and was delivered by National Grid Electricty Distribution, Regen, Smart Grid Consultancy, Kensa Utilities and VEPod.
Project duration: March 2024 – May 2024
Project leads: Rebecca Ford, Head of demand and felxibility, and George Middlemiss, Net Zero Project Manager
Rural areas face unique challenges on their journey to decarbonization. One of those challenges is the difficulty in installing the required low carbon technologies such as heat pumps and EV chargers. The low voltage cables in many rural areas may be unable to handle the additional loads placed on them by increased electrification and therefore require costly upgrades before these communities are able to connect these technologies.
The aim of REACH was to explore whether novel and modular solutions could provide a way for rural communities to achieve their decarbonization objectives.
Regens role:
Regen was primarily responsible for the community engagement aspect of this project. We supported the project partners to learn more about the rural communities and ultimately seek to identify a handful of communities that could be suitable trial locations.
The outcome:
Overall we engaged with over 70 community stakeholders in National Grids electricity distribution region through our launch event and had over 80 expressions of interest. Following a more detailed expression of interest and selection process, we were able to select seven communities that could be suitable trial locations.
What next:
In the Alpha phase we would look to conduct feasibility studies for the novel and modular solutions to decarbonization in the selected rural communities. In addition, we would look to create an options assessment that would make it easier for a community to self-identify that the REACH solution is the best option for them to achieve their decarbonization objectives.
Regen worked with climate charity Possible and Community Energy England to explore the viability of combining community wind schemes with electrified heating technology to improve the affordability of energy bills, creating a replicable pathway to end reliance on gas.
Project duration: July 2023 – February 2024
Project manager: Jack Adkins
Project manager:Poppy Maltby
Last year, the number of households in fuel poverty in England stood at 3.17 million (13%) and the fuel poverty gap was an average of £417 per household. One of the main recommendations from the Committee on Fuel Poverty’s (CFP) Annual Report 2023 was to deliver “a fair transition to net zero that does not increase fuel poverty”, by seeking to “deploy low-carbon technologies at least cost, best payback” as part of an Energy Affordability Strategy. In this context, onshore wind emerges as a pivotal player, offering a sustainable and cost-effective solution in achieving the CFP’s recommendation while working towards a decarbonised future.
Regen worked with Community Energy England in supporting UK climate charity Possible to explore how low-carbon electric heat technology, such as heat pumps installed in the community or heat networks, powered by locally owned wind could provide affordable, secure energy and a replicable pathway to end reliance on gas while cutting costs and supporting communities.
This project involved:
The resulting report, Wind-powered Heat: Powering clean heat with clean energy to cut costs and emissions, can be downloaded here.
As Scotland embarks on a just transition to net zero in a time of multiple overlapping crises, community and local energy could have a significant role to play. Community and local energy approaches can bring significant benefits into towns, cities and regions. Community-owned generation assets such as wind and solar PV can create new revenue streams for local areas, while local energy systems and services led by local authorities and wider local stakeholder partnerships can help to:
Innovations in technology, financial models, policy, participation and ownership in the local and community energy spaces offer new opportunities for a just transition.
This project will thus explore the current and future opportunities for community and local energy to directly support Scotland’s National Just Transition Outcomes and a just energy transition more broadly.
Using a mixed methods approach including systematic literature review, interviews, distributional analysis and a small-scale citizens’ jury, we will:
The key output of this project is to develop a set of tangible proposals for supporting community and local energy in Scotland as part of the Energy Strategy and Just Transition Plan, due to be updated in summer 2023. This will be also published in a final report.
Session 1
Session 2
Chris Morris, Local Energy Scotland
Christina Hinds, Local Energy Scotland & Sarah Merrick, Ripple Energy
Commissioned by Innovate UK, Regen have been leading work developing insights and impacts from the Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme, to help share learnings around the opportunities and potential of smart local energy systems in the UK.
Project manager: Fraser Stewart; Project director: Merlin Hyman
A smart local energy system brings together energy generation, storage, heat, transport, and buildings in a local area and connects them in a smart way using data and digital technologies. Such systems can help local areas to meet their net zero energy ambitions in a holistic way that reflects the needs of local citizens, communities, and businesses. They also have the potential to deliver much wider social and economic benefits, including regional economic growth, improved health and fuel poverty outcomes, better connected places, and new opportunities for jobs and business models.
Funded by UK Research and Innovation and delivered by Innovate UK, the Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme set out to demonstrate the viability, impact, and future prospects of these smart local energy systems. Over £104m has been awarded to the programme, with match-funding taking this up to over £170m in total.
This funding supported three live demonstrator projects, 10 detailed design projects and a host of other initiatives, to explore the feasibility of smart local energy systems, understand the opportunities they present, and demonstrate the value they can offer in practice to the UK’s energy transition.
To help understand key learnings and opportunities from this diverse portfolio of projects, Regen conducted extensive research and stakeholder engagement around three key themes: Finance and Investment, Policy and Regulation, and Skills and Capabilities.
This work was then turned into a series of short, sharp, “insight briefs” which spotlight high-level findings and provide tangible recommendations to enable the value on offer from these systems going forward.
The final project report pulls together findings from three insight papers along with findings on citizens and communities and data and digitalisation, to give a comprehensive overview of what smart local energy systems are, the value they offer, how they are developed, how they impact different stakeholders and communities, and how to ultimately enable them as part of a cleaner, smarter energy system.
The published insight briefs can be found here:
For more information, please reach out to Regen’s Just Transition Lead, Fraser Stewart at fstewart@regen.co.uk
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.
ReWiRE celebrated it’s 10th birthday earlier in 2024 and we took the opportunity to ask some key questions of our members to find out more about the challenges and opportunities that women face in renewable energy sector
ReWiRE’s 10th Birthday Celebration Highlights
Support received to overcome personal challenges in the workplace
The value of a room with more women in it
The biggest challenge for the clean energy sector
The biggest opportunity for the clean energy sector
These videos were proudly supported by National Grid
The clean energy sector is playing a leading role in providing the solutions to meet the net zero by 2050 target. In the run up to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this November, we want to showcase the leading efforts of our vibrant sector.
#FacesoftheEnergyTransition is a digital campaign run by all the UK energy trade associations, supported by COP26 and Race To Zero digital channels, designed to celebrate the inspiring individuals and pioneering projects working to achieve the clean energy transition and tackle the climate crisis internationally.
We’ve produced a series of videos celebrating those individuals – watch the videos below.
Sarah Watt, Orbital Marine
Isabel Sosa Nunez, ITM Power
Monika Paplaczyk, Thrive Renewables
Hadassah Wallace, National Grid
