Funded Energy Redress Projects

Home energy advice will be delivered to at least 4500 households, focusing particularly on rural off-gas households, across this large and remote area, where fuel poverty levels are some of the highest in the UK. 

This thorough and comprehensive service will offer a range of energy advice topics to raise awareness, increase resilience and reduce the risk of fuel poverty. Including advice on switching suppliers and tariffs, support dealing with energy companies, and referrals for insulation and heating replacement schemes.

They will offer a mix of home visits, face-to-face advice at events and telephone sessions. 

The project will also deliver free training events to at least 250 frontline workers who support vulnerable or disadvantaged people, to help them to recognise and refer fuel-poor households.

Nook CRM is an open source case notes management system for UK community energy groups, with currently 6 groups joining its pilot.

Working in partnership with Plymouth Energy Community and Community Energy South, the project will launch innovations that bring efficiencies to groups’ operations and free advisors to undertake more frontline delivery.

Based on their research these include:

1. Streamlined funder reporting: resource-heavy effort is required of groups to submit regular and accurate reporting data to funders, and manage changing reporting requirements. They will work with funders and partner coordinating networks to determine required data and reporting, and then build a centrally-managed (and updated) reporting logic/templates in Nook for groups that have that funder. With a few clicks, groups would be able to generate reports for the funder, slashing the time they spend on reporting. 

2. Standardised metrics to calculate impact: Groups use a range of effort-intensive approaches for calculating impact (energy bill and CO₂ savings). They will provide groups with automated calculations of a range of metrics, or use their own formulae. 

3. Mapping: Managers have requested tools to visualise the geographical impact of their operations (e.g. the types of interventions in their locality), helping teams strategise more effectively. 

4. Continued support and hosting for pilot groups. They also plan to continue making their research and learnings available to the sector.

The project aims to enable urban communities to be part of a community-owned ‘Virtual Power Plant’, (VPP), to generate, store and control their own renewable power, directly reducing energy costs and carbon emissions for all participating households. 

The project, led by Ynni Teg in partnership with the Bengal Dragons Foundation (BDF), will support minority Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities in South Wales conurbations with the transition to Net Zero. It builds on existing project work developing the Community Centres and mosques at the heart of these communities as local energy hubs and greatly expands its scope to include the largely low-income (fuel poor) households in their locales. 

The VPP will include 1MWp of rooftop solar PV and 3MWh of battery storage, distributed over approximately 300 properties including vulnerable households, located in Cardiff and Newport. The assets will be aggregated and controlled through a specialist software platform to optimise their use and enable energy to be supplied to households at a reduced cost. 

The VPP will operate as a large-scale single entity, with ownership of the assets retained in a community energy company, thus making it more attractive to prospective funders and imposing no/minimal cost barriers on participating households.

The project outcomes will be a new community-owned energy entity, delivering reduced energy costs to participants and reduced carbon emissions. It will provide learning and capacity building for the partner organisations and will provide a model that can be scaled up and replicated to support other communities in their transition to Net Zero.

This project aims to move three community heat plus energy projects towards being investment and shovel ready.

The project will investigate ways to match community energy generation with heat demand, to cut the costs of decarbonising both heat and energy at household, community and systemic levels. The work will develop three site-specific community projects, exploring different ways of delivering clean, affordable heat and energy for different communities, urban and rural, and using different combinations of clean technologies; and will also explore ways to remove key barriers to the successful delivery of these three projects by exploring local supply and matching mechanisms. By doing so, the project will create learnings and develop replicable models which will also be useful to other community energy projects.

The project will help three communities either facing or at risk of energy poverty and unaffordable energy bills, or which may be left behind in the transition to clean energy due to a lack of the resources, time and expertise required to seize opportunities offered by community energy projects.

The project aims to build on their current energy advice service to tackle fuel poverty, and help residents across Barnsley achieve warmer, healthier homes.

A handyperson scheme will help deliver and install small measures directly in homes, while bringing pop-up energy advice sessions to local estates and rural communities, breaking down barriers to access. Their targeted outreach will focus on the most deprived areas of Barnsley, ensuring they reach those most in need of support.

They will also launch a volunteer programme, creating opportunities for local people—many of whom have been supported by their work—to get involved. Volunteers will help deliver small measures, assist advisors, and promote the service in their communities. With additional funding, they'll expand their winter warmth packs to provide extra seasonal support to more households.

The project will provide 1:1 in-depth energy support and advice tailored to the needs of older people and vulnerable adults based in the London Borough of Merton. Energy support will be delivered through a variety of channels including home visits, over the telephone, via email, and in their office.

Through complex 1:1 casework, the project will deliver impartial support based on individual circumstances and needs, to help solve energy issues and empower households to manage their own energy independently in the future. This will result in beneficiaries feeling less anxious and worried about their energy situation and having better overall wellbeing.

The project aims to achieve lasting carbon emissions reductions from self-funding households in the area through a scaled up programme of ‘deep local’ retrofit support.

The project builds on the successes and learnings of a previously funded project, through which they have demonstrated both local demand and support for their services. This next phase will scale the service to improve efficiency and embed and refine systems built around an engaging and positive customer journey that results in tangible retrofit action. 

Building on lessons from their previous project, innovations in survey and advice delivery will enable them to better meet customer needs and fix the market failures they’ve identified. Triage calls will direct customers to the right support while follow-up coaching calls and retrofit coordination will extend support across the whole retrofit journey, empowering residents to take the crucial move from information to action. 

Their proven community based social marketing approach will build on the use of champions, neighbourhood clusters and peer to peer inspiration to drive uptake, while use of data will help them reach beyond their usual networks. They will codify their approach to enable replication beyond their borders.

The organisation aims to scale the existing portfolio of NHS sites from 1.2 MW to 2.89 MW across 14 sites (20 rooftops) in 5 NHS Trusts and Primary Care Networks. This project will enable them to carry out detailed feasibility studies, financial modelling, forge new partnerships, and raise finance; ensuring the upscaled project is ready for implementation.

This expansion will enhance carbon reduction, alleviate fuel poverty for vulnerable groups, and reduce hospital admissions, easing pressures on local NHS services. 

The project aims to generate over £1 million for fuel poverty initiatives by funding local charity, Beat the Cold, through solar energy sales, enabling a proactive model that benefits patients and shifts from reactive to preventive care.

The project aims to support 1,680 households in northern and eastern Cambridgeshire, to help create a healthier, more resilient community for vulnerable residents. Amid escalating energy costs and inflation, the project will address a critical service gap, especially in isolated rural areas where access to targeted fuel poverty support is severely limited.

They will deliver comprehensive energy advice through phone consultations, home visits and community energy surgeries. Practical guidance will cover reducing energy consumption and costs, and financial assistance for energy expenses, including oil and LPG, for those unable to heat their homes. In cases of severe hardship, our holistic, tailored approach will offer debt relief and referrals to additional support services.

The project will also train frontline workers to identify and support those at risk of fuel poverty, extending its impact and ensuring sustainability. By focusing on high-risk, rural and deprived areas, with limited access to specialised services, the project will fill a critical gap in local support.