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07 May 2020
The Ofgem Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme (Energy Redress Scheme) opens its latest funding round for applications on Thursday 7th May 2020 to charities that support vulnerable energy consumers. The seventh round of the scheme includes four different funding streams including a new Crisis Fund, introduced to help address the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable households.
Managed and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust, the Energy Redress Scheme collects voluntary payments from energy companies that may have breached rules to make reparation for the effects on energy consumers that may have been affected.
The priority of the scheme is to support energy consumers in vulnerable situations, with a small percentage of the fund available to support innovative products and services that will help existing or future energy consumers.
The seventh round of the Energy Redress Scheme has four separate funds open to ensure projects of a similar nature and scale are assessed against each other:
The Main Fund contains £2.1 million and is aimed at projects seeking grants between £50,000 and £500,000.
The Small Grants Fund contains £450,000 and is aimed at projects seeking grants of between £20,000 and £49,999.
The Innovation Fund contains £450,000 and is aimed at projects seeking grants between £50,000 and £450,000, that will develop innovative products or services to benefit energy consumers.
The deadline for applications to the above three funds is 5pm on Thursday 28 May 2020.
The new COVID-19 Crisis Fund contains up to £10 million and is open to charities that support vulnerable households who are at crisis point and unable to top up their prepayment energy meters. The fund can award grants between £20,000 and £300,000 towards crisis interventions and the initial closing date for applications is 5pm on Thursday 21 May 2020. The fund will be reviewed and reopened if there is still funding to be distributed.
Only charities that are registered with the Energy Redress Scheme and have passed the due diligence process can apply to the open funding rounds. Further information on the scheme and the application process can be found here.
The Energy Redress Scheme has funded 92 projects since launching in 2018, awarding over £12.5 million to charities delivering projects across England, Scotland and Wales.