NIA SSEN 0076 Equal LCTs

Key Activities

Equal LCT identifies consumer groups at risk of being left behind in the energy transition, focusing on their electricity network needs and proposing commercial products and services to support their access to Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs).

It explores which societal segments are most vulnerable, how best to engage them, which technologies and commercial offerings suit each group, and the barriers to participating in flexibility markets. These insights equip product providers with a deeper understanding of underserved consumers and strategies to effectively reach and support them.

Expected Outcomes

The project aims to form a consortium of key stakeholders to support a just energy transition. It will clearly define the broader value chain available to consumers post-LCT installation and identify consumer archetypes that can benefit most—prioritising those with the greatest need. For these priority groups, the project will develop tailored models to enable LCT access and design a trial to test the technical and commercial viability of these models, including consumer impact and success metrics.

Progress

This completed project focused on three core workstreams: Understanding the Ecosystem, which involved forming a consortium of industry actors to explore consumer challenges and co-develop solutions; Understanding the Consumers, where six at-risk consumer segments were identified and validated by experts from Baringa and CSE; and Defining the Commercial Models, which explored how these consumers could benefit financially from Low Carbon Technologies (LCTs) and identified barriers to uptake and participation in flexibility markets. The project then developed five high-impact, scalable propositions from an initial list of ten: Targeted Community Energy Scheme, Utilisation of Local Heat Sources, Domestic Energy Efficiency, Targeted Recruitment into Flex Services, and Shared I&C EV Charging Infrastructure. This research laid the foundation for a follow-up SIF Alpha project, now underway, https://smarter.energynetworks.org/projects/10145484/. This project looks at ways to use flexibility to reduce peak heat demand on the network.