Project duration: March to May 2020
We helped Western Power Distribution (WPD) produce their Net Zero Communities Strategy, which sets out what they have done, and what they will do next to support community and local energy organisation. The strategy is based on feedback from WPD’s extensive engagement over the past seven years, including participatory events, innovation projects, site visits, guides, consultations, vulnerable customer support and development of website resources.
WPD are keen to continue supporting community energy organisations because they recognise the vital role that these groups play in driving the net zero transition, and ensuring the most vulnerable in our society are not left behind. They recognise that we will not be able to achieve a transition at the speed and scale necessary to meet net zero by 2050 without bringing people with us.
The action plan sets out WPD’s commitments for the year ahead, to guide their work with community and local energy organisations, including:
- Carbon reporting on flexibility services they buy
- Making a clear statement on the links between carbon/net zero and communities in their next business plan
- Collaborating with communities and local authorities on local area energy plans and providing guidance on anticipatory investment to ensure the network is not a barrier
- Proactively support community energy organisations to connect to the network
- Support communities to work with them on innovation projects and do a specific call for community energy innovation ideas
- Rollout OpenLV data
- Develop more guides and resources specifically for community energy organisations
- Review their PSR referrals process to help more vulnerable customers and people in fuel poverty.
The strategy and action plan will be updated annually, so you can tell WPD what you think and influence their plans via the ‘Join our community energy conversation’ link on their community energy web pages, or by coming to one of our joint events.
View the report here and below:
If you are interested in finding out more about our work and how we support community energy, please contact Jodie Giles jgiles@regen.co.uk.
We run regular engagement events for communities that you can view here and we have a special rate for community energy organisations who would like to be members of Regen which can be found here.
