New report on local energy systems across the UK
19 May 2022
A report on local energy systems across the UK, led by Tim Braunholtz-Speight and Maria Sharmina of Tyndall Manchester and Dimitrios Pappas of Tyndall UEA, has been published by the EnergyREV research consortium.
The report highlights the great diversity of types, shapes and sizes of local energy system in the UK today. It provides an overview of the range of technologies, activities, and scales of these systems, and explores their finances, governance, and environmental and social aspects.
The authors found that local energy systems are often ultimately managed by organisations outside the core energy sector, including local authorities, industrial estate companies, housing bodies, and universities. They were also struck that, despite the challenges of working somewhat ‘against the grain’ of the UK’s centralised energy system, almost all the system operators in our study are working on expanding the scale, scope or ‘smartness’ of their systems.
The report provides a multi-faceted portrait of today’s local energy systems and suggestions for how policy and practice can help these systems play their part in the transition to the sustainable smart local energy systems of the future.