NIA SSEN 0036 Social Constrained Managed Zones (CMZs)

Key Activities

This project was initiated to test the appetite for small scale community led initiatives to participate in electrical constraint managed zones (CMZs), with the goal of influencing the area’s electrical usage profile, potentially increasing the viability of local community renewable projects which will help progress towards net zero.

Expected Outcomes

The project’s aim was to reduce the barriers to participation in the CMZ process for smaller community groups by producing documentation that will aid their understanding of the process and requirements of the Social CMZ process. It also provided direct support to interested community groups in the two selected areas, through seed funding and/or consultant support.

Progress

Positively the project demonstrated that community groups and small businesses are engaged and supportive towards seeking out opportunities of changing their electrical usage patterns in a way that is beneficial to networks. Community meetings were mostly well attended and interest continued with up-take of a small seed-funding grant to explore their ideas further. Although several participantswere unable to submit full tenders, engagement with them has remained positive, and feedback on the market structure and tender methods have been taken on board – namely around timescales and financial levels.

Working with the community at the seed-feeding stage allowed ideas around how they could change their electricity usage to be explored in greater depth. It was at this stage that the costs were examined, and it became apparent that the potential renumeration did not meet the associated effort, hence deterring most of the participants from submitting full proposals.