Utility Week

12 | 2ND - 8TH AUGUST 2019 | UTILITY WEEK Utility of the Future: climate change Towards net zero carbon Lessons from Scotland The success of Scotland's energy efficiency programme was held up as an exemplar by the BEIS select committee. Scotland classified energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority in 2015, providing a strong foundation for its energy efficiency programme, which is co-ordinated through the Energy Efficient Scotland (EES) route map. The EES is a 20-year programme designed to make Scotland's existing buildings near zero carbon wherever feasible by 2050, bringing the provision of energy efficiency and low carbon heat together under one umbrella, to be overseen by a dedicated delivery agency. The EES is a product of ongoing pilots, public consultation, and multi-year funding commitments. Spend per capita on energy efficiency is more than four times higher than in England; £35 compared with £8. Government action • Launched six local supply chain demonstration projects, focusing on reducing costs for the retrofit and building supply chain while also addressing the non-financial barriers to deeper retrofit, such as supply chain fragmentation. • Launched two innovation competitions to support domestic energy efficiency: – A £10 million innovation project launched in June 2019 to try and reduce the cost of whole-house retrofit through economies of scale and process innovation; – A £5 million green home finance innovation fund, launched in July 2019, to support the develop- ment of innovative green finance products to support consumers in undertaking energy efficiency. • Set up a digital advice service for homeowners on how to cut their energy bills. • Launched quality mark and mandatory qualifications to improve standards of insulation, which following a newly launched consultation could be a require- ment under ECO. Instead, the day before Boris Johnson was announced as the new prime minister (along- side new ministers at BEIS) a rash of consul- tations and policy documents were rushed out by the department. BEIS consultations One of the consultations was what amounted to a call for ideas that would promote energy saving by "creating new markets for energy efficiency, securing its role in the wider energy market, contributing to flexibility and becoming a reliable alternative to increased generation and network reinforcement", said the 15-page document. BEIS says it is looking at a whole- systems approach to energy efficiency this time around, having earlier consulted on how to promote energy efficiency in the domestic market. However, this latest consultation appears to be more a cry for help than a direc- tion of travel. One of the few key messages it conveyed was that energy efficiency would not be eligible to bid in the capacity market. In terms of tackling energy efficiency in the building stock per se it was largely silent. Another consultation, looking at fuel pov- erty, was also missing big announcements and solutions, addressing mainly proposed changes to the measurement of fuel poverty. There was no signs of extra cash, or financial incentives to get back on track with insulating the building stock, or a replace- ment for the Green Deal, the flagship policy originally hatched under a Labour govern- ment to encourage homeowners to improve the energy efficiency of their homes by bor- rowing to finance improvements against savings they would make from their energy bills. It was scrapped in 2015 following low take-up and concerns about standards of workmanship. David Joffe, team leader, economy-wide analysis, at the Committee on Climate Change, says: "Nothing has come along to replace the Green Deal. It came to a grind- ing halt five years ago and since then we've lacked an effective energy efficiency policy. We need to get back on track." Dan Alchin, deputy director, retail at Energy UK, agrees: "We need funding and the right mechanisms, and also to cre- ate demand – which the Green Deal never addressed. There is no silver bullet; a pack- age of measures is needed. "I'd like to think the conversation around net zero will push energy efficiency back up the agenda and spark conversations about what's possible – to meet the 2035 target we need £4-£5 billion every year." The BEIS select committee reports the need to increase insulation actions seven- fold. The technology is there, says Alchin, including for properties with solid walls. "It is expensive, but if we create a market, that will drive innovation." Filippo Gaddo, head of energy econom- ics at Arup, also points to the need to raise the game when it comes to energy efficiency, and quickly. "There is a knowledge gap that needs to be addressed both in terms of domestic and commercial [properties]," he says. He welcomes government plans to set up an ECO scheme for small businesses, which it has recently consulted on. Arup was commissioned by Lord Debden to write a strategy for increasing energy effi- ciency, which was published in May 2016. It acknowledges, as did subsequent reports, the need to shake the public out of its apathy towards saving energy. Gaddo says we need to sell the message about how carbon diox- ide emissions are polluting the environment in the same way single use plastics are doing to the environment. Joanne Wade, deputy director at the Asso- ciation for Decentralised Energy (ADE), also picks up the theme: "It is not top of the pri- ority list for energy consumers. It's all very well telling someone they can save a couple of hundred pounds on their energy bill, but for a lot of consumers, that's not enough to engage them in the action. "I think people need to understand what they can do, which isn't really explained well enough currently. We need more advice, and more from the industry. And the industry is ready to do that, but at the moment it doesn't have enough confidence that there's a mar- ket out there for it. Nobody is quite sure that the consumers will say yes. There's a reluc- tance to get these things in place, when the policy framework doesn't quite support it." She's convinced there's a great oppor- tunity for energy companies to be more proactive. "If my energy company wanted to talk to me about the energy efficiency of my home, I'd think that they know what they're talking about, as opposed to just cold calling. There's lots of things going on in non-domestic buildings. Centrica Business Solutions, Eon, people like that are offering their business customers energy efficiency, as well as energy supply, and an integrated solution to their energy needs. And I think we need to see more of that too. "But on the domestic side we need public engagement to tell people about it. We prob- ably need some government activity on that, as well as industry." She also points to the need for incentives: "We don't need to spend massive amounts of government money, but why are we not continued from previous page

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