EDF empowers social housing residents to trade solar energy
Residents of a block of flats in Brixton are pioneering a community energy trading project led by EDF Energy that will enable them to trade solar energy with each other.
EDF Energy’s Research & Development department has launched Project ‘CommUNITY’ with Repowering London and UCL’s Energy Institute, which aims to increase residents’ consumption of local low-carbon energy while reducing their overall costs.
Project ‘CommUNITY’ will enable Brixton residents at Elmore House to access electricity generated from a solar PV system on the block’s roof, store it in a battery and trade with one another (peer-to-peer) using blockchain technology.
The platform, managed via an app, allows residents in urban areas to source their energy from local renewables and either use their own allocation of energy or trade it with their neighbours.
Under current regulations, customers cannot buy from, or sell to, other consumers but delivery of the project has been made possible as part of Ofgem’s ‘Innovation Link’, which allows the consortium to work outside the current regulatory framework.
Xavier Mamo, Director of Research & Development at EDF Energy, said: “At EDF Energy, we are committed to making energy easier for our customers and unlocking the benefits that new technologies are bringing to the sector.
“By collaborating with our partners and using block chain technology, this project in Brixton aims to show how small communities in dense urban areas could benefit from a low carbon and local energy system in a new and transformative way.”
Felix Wight, Technical Director at Repowering, said: “We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to own a stake in and benefit from new energy technologies, and this project will create new ways to do just that.”
“We are proud that the first inner city solar cooperative in the UK will now host this ground-breaking trial which continues the journey towards a locally managed, low carbon future”.
The trial is expected to start in March 2019 and will end in October 2019.
Additional information:
For more information about Ofgem’s “Innovation Link”, visit: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/about-us/how-we-engage/innovation-link
Notes to editors
About Repowering
Repowering specialises in co-producing community energy programmes with community groups and Local Authorities. We support communities to deliver, own and manage renewable energy projects that provide benefits to the citizens that surround them. We are a community benefit society with a team of dedicated employees working collaboratively alongside passionate volunteers. For more information on our current projects and investment opportunities please visit www.repowering.org.uk
About UCL’s Energy Institute
UCL's Energy Institute (UCL) delivers world-leading learning, research and policy support on the challenges of climate change and energy security. The group has links with most of the main energy companies and works closely with organisations including Ofgem, DESNZ, and the CCC. Recently UCL participated in a major field trial on smart metering and non-punitive ToU tariffs in social housing in Tower Hamlets, London. Lessons will be drawn from this trial for application in CommUNITY.
For more information
Megan Johnson
External Communications Manager – Customers
megan.johnson@edfenergy.com
About EDF
EDF is driving the transition towards An Electric Britain – a secure, affordable, low-carbon future for everyone. As Britain’s biggest generator of zero carbon electricity, we are investing more than £100 million weekly in Britain’s electricity infrastructure. We supply millions of customers with electricity and help homes and businesses switch to electricity for heating, transport and industrial processes.
We operate five nuclear power stations and more than 35 onshore wind farms and three offshore wind farms. Since 2009, EDF has invested almost £9 billion in the nuclear fleet to improve reliability and extend station lifetimes. The five generating stations currently supply about 12% of the UK’s electricity demand.
EDF is building the UK's nuclear renaissance with the construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C. We are a minority investor (12.5%) in and major supplier to a replica plant at Sizewell C in Suffolk. Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C will provide low carbon electricity to meet 14% of UK demand and power around 12 million homes. EDF Group companies Framatome and Arabelle Solutions have a presence in the UK and manufacture critical equipment such as reactor pressure vessels and turbines.
EDF is enabling its 5 million customers, both in business and at home, to choose electric solutions that save cash and carbon, whether it is buying an electric car, generating and storing electricity, selling energy back to the grid or installing solar panels or a heat pump. In 2025, EDF’s Customers business was ranked as one of the Sunday Times’s Best Place to Work.
It is also one of the UK’s leading developers of renewable energy through EDF power solutions UK and Ireland. We have more than 2GW of renewable generation in operation and over 10GW in construction, planning and development across a range of technologies including onshore and offshore wind, solar and battery storage.
We are one of the largest suppliers to British business and a leading supplier of innovative energy solutions that are helping businesses become more energy independent. In addition, the company’s energy services business, Dalkia, one of the UK and Ireland’s largest technical service providers.
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