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 helping Britain achieve Net Zero by leading the transition to a cleaner, low emission, electric future and tackling climate change. It is the UK’s largest producer of low-carbon electricity(1) and supplies millions of customers with electricity and gas.
It generates low carbon electricity from five nuclear power stations and more than thirty onshore wind farms and two offshore wind farms.
EDF is leading the UK's nuclear renaissance with the construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point C, and there are advanced plans for a replica 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 is one of the UK’s largest investors in renewables, with more than 1.5GW of renewable generation in operation and almost 14GW in planning and development across a range of technologies including onshore and offshore wind, solar and battery storage. We are constructing our largest offshore wind farm in Britain – the 450 MW Neart na Gaoithe project in Scotland.
EDF is helping its customers, both in business and at home, take their first steps to sustainably powering their lives. Whether it is buying an electric car, generating and storing electricity, selling energy back to the grid or installing a heat pump. EDF is 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, is one of the largest technical service providers in the UK and Ireland.
EDF is part of EDF Group, the world’s biggest electricity generator. In the UK, the company employs around 14,000 people at locations across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
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