Addressing Energy-Inequality through Community-led Local Markets

This project will work with three Hebridean island communities to establish innovative community-led local energy markets (LEMs) to tackle fuel poverty. 

LEMs have been successful elsewhere in the UK at tackling fuel poverty through reducing energy costs for local households. Despite significant interest from Scottish island and rural communities in LEMs, there are area-specific barriers to these, including limited access to smart meter installers, high travel costs, challenges with smart meter communications and local grid congestion. This project aims to address these barriers.

They will establish demonstrator LEMs in Raasay, Tiree and Barra & Vatersay. These will be “Energy Local Clubs” - a community-driven initiative that allows households and businesses to buy locally generated renewable energy at affordable rates. 

The team will resolve smart meter installation and operational challenges and train local installers. This will target off-gas grid areas reliant on storage heaters enabling them to access innovative tariffs to mitigate impacts of Radio Teleswitch (RTS) removal. 

They will also trial smart controlled heat pumps to enable households to access green heat at more affordable prices and collaborate with Distribution Network Operators (DNOs) to explore how LEMs can alleviate known network constraints and enable renewable energy connections. This will provide a route to market for future community-owned renewable energy generation. 

The project aims to create and maintain a legacy knowledge-sharing and capacity-building network for rural and island communities looking to establish LEMs in their area.