Mairi Brookes

4 October 2024

Achieving a just transition to a net zero energy system will look different from one street to the next. Helping communities to nimbly overcome barriers and patiently untangle the complexity of new technologies and tariffs is the job of the Grid Edge Coordinator.

This blog post looks at the background to this newly created role and why we think it’s crucial to the successful delivery of a zero-carbon energy system.

Learning from LEO

Project LEO, one of the UK’s most ambitious, wide-ranging and innovative energy trials, concluded in March 2023 with the publication of a final report that highlights the key findings and important learnings from the trials. Far from being the end of the project, this marked the beginning of a new chapter for Low Carbon Hub, where we seek to take the learnings from LEO and look at how we can roll them out, creating changes in Oxfordshire’s energy planning and delivery.

Being smart and fair

An important lesson learned from LEO’s ‘Smart and Fair Neighbourhood trials’ was the importance of coordination at a community level to create and implement action plans for net zero energy. This coordination is important to help people as the country moves over to electric transport and heating. On the ground, coordination is also needed to pilot new energy services that enable people to optimise the energy use of their buildings and coordinate energy use in a local area, to reduce the costs of moving to net zero for everyone and to reach net zero quicker.

The arrival of the LAEP

At the same time, something called Local Area Energy Planning (LAEP) was being developed. This is where the planning and management of our energy is joined up with spatial planning (of new housing, business or industrial sites) and the transition to a net-zero energy system. It is led by local authorities in collaboration with electricity and gas network operators and other key organisations at a regional scale.

Clearly LAEP and the community-level coordination that Low Carbon Hub undertook in Project LEO are related, but not identical.

So, in the past year, we’ve been working with neighbourhoods in Oxfordshire that took part in the LEO smart and fair neighbourhood trials to take the learnings to the next stage and deliver workable ‘Community Action Plans for Zero-Carbon Energy‘ (CAPZero) that can be joined up with the regional Local Area Energy Plans that our local authorities are developing.

Our CAPZeros can be thought of as neighbourhood-level LAEPs.

The need to coordinate at the grid edge

You might be wondering why we need community-scale action plans when we will be getting regional-scale LAEPs.

As the first LAEPs have been introduced in the UK, it has become clear that a gap exists between the creation of the plan and its delivery on the ground.

There is also a community-scale opportunity that is hard to take when coordinating at a regional scale: new services like building and community-scale optimisation of energy generation and use need to be piloted. These pilots are best initially done on a small scale and therefore need community-level engagement and coordination.

Trust in our communities

It is also important to coordinate at a community level because every community is different. Engaging with the specific needs of each community (whether they are energy-related or not) is an essential starting point to build relationships and trust. Trust is vital because, to make this transition to net zero, every household and business needs to make the move to electric heating and transport. That’s a lot of people who need support and help with technologies that are new to them.

We have identified the need for a Grid Edge Coordinator – a new role – that will fill this gap and integrate communities, local authorities and networks. While we are still fully developing the scope of such a role, we know it will need to be multi-disciplinary to cover the range of knowledge and skill sets needed to deliver Community Action Plans for Zero-Carbon Energy and be the bridge we need between all the key players. We therefore envisage that the role will be undertaken by an organisation rather than a single person.

Where does the Grid Edge Coordinator fit in?

The Grid Edge Coordinator (GEC) will provide services to facilitate the creation and delivery of Community Action Plans for Zero-Carbon Energy (which can be thought of as neighbourhood-level Local Area Energy Plans): including the active participation of local individuals, schools, and businesses; comprehensive mapping of all aspects of the energy system in the area; and joining up with regional LAEPs and net-zero targets.

The role includes identifying opportunities for a neighbourhood-wide smart retrofit roll-out to be included in the plan. The coordination of smart retrofits will help homes and businesses become energy efficient and smart, enabling them to reduce energy use overall and shift energy use to avoid expensive, peak times.

The Grid Edge Coordinator can support community energy groups in developing new renewable energy generation and storage projects. It can also bring communities and innovators together to pilot new products and services that optimise energy use within buildings and across local areas.

By bringing its expertise and existing relationships with the local authorities and network operators, the grid edge coordinator can help communities engage with Local Area Planning in an effective and meaningful way.

Low Carbon Hub recognises the critical role of trust in fulfilling the responsibilities of the GEC. Establishing trust within communities is essential for developing a practical, community-based approach to energy. Any organisation taking on the GEC role must earn the trust of local authorities, network operators, and communities.

What benefits will the Grid Edge Coordinator bring?

Successfully establishing the GEC role will have multiple benefits in the development and delivery of LAEPs which will in turn create benefits for the energy networks, communities and the delivery of our net-zero plans. We hope to establish Oxfordshire’s GEC role to innovate processes that will:

• Have greater engagement with communities about their needs in the context of moving to a zero-carbon energy system.
• Help facilitate the uptake of low carbon technologies to communities, with a particular focus on vulnerable people, to ensure no one is ‘left behind’.
• Encourage integration between key players needed to transition our society to net-zero, including DNOs, local authorities, businesses and households.
• Help the network operators manage and upgrade the energy system infrastructure more cost-effectively.
• Provide a workable blueprint for other areas of the UK to follow.
• Help households, councils and energy networks achieve financial savings.

What’s next?

As Oxfordshire continues to implement the learnings from Project LEO and take the next steps towards rolling out LAEPs, Low Carbon Hub is proud to be part of this exciting journey.

We are working in partnership with Oxfordshire County Council, West Oxfordshire District Council, Oxford City Council and Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks to develop its Grid Edge Coordinator services (CAPZero Creation and CAPZero Stewardship) and integrate them into the emerging LAEP process that is led by the county council.

We look forward to bringing you more news about our work on this as we continue to develop the road ahead for local energy. 

Acknowledgements:

The development of the Grid Edge Coordinator Role has been enabled by our amazing local partners especially: the community in Eynsham, Green TEA; Westmill Solar and Wind Cooperatives, Low Carbon West Oxford; West Oxfordshire District Council, Oxfordshire County Council; and, SSEN.

We have benefitted from the funding for Project LEO, which was part of the UK Government’s Prospering from the Energy Revolution programme, and, led by SSEN, Ofgem’s Strategic Innovation Fund (Discovery and Alpha stages).