ERDF – SUD Workshop for VCSE Organisations

Notes

SUD in Greater Manchester - Sean Owen (GMCA)10:00 – 10:20

Q & A

Q. what do you mean by aggregating?

A.Aggregation is a way of managing or responding to energy demand. Aggregators can turn off electrical load for certain time which saves energy. When this is accumulated across a number of homes, sites or centres this can result in big energy savings which can be charged back to grid.

The principle is that people are paid to store energy created which is cheaper than powering off.

Q.How do you see the VCSE contributing to this?

A. All sectors need to contribute as the Combined Authority cannot get the message across to residents single handily. VCSE has larger catchment area, without VCSE in partnership within districts we will not be able to inform the masses. Everybody has a part to play, needs to be more community energy generation. People need to trust aggregators and the VCSE sector is often more trusted in neighbourhoods.

Q. How do you plan to ensure all social landlords and private landlords deliver this?

A.SUD will not combat this and that isn’t really the purpose of the SUD call. SUD is part of the European programme focusing on integrating our energy system for the future. A result of SUD could be the creation of political pressure to ensure politicians make policy changes to make sure landlords engage with energy strategies for the benefit of their residents. SUD can showcasemethods or means to encourage suppliers to change their methods /systems which could be more appealing to private landlords.

SUD and opportunities for VCSE organisations – Andy Churchill (Network for Europe) 10:20 – 10:45

Ben Aylott’s (Carbon Coop) Batteries Presentation Summary

Stationery batteries – used to balance demand in the grid.

Battery prices falling year on year means it is slowly becoming more economically viable. This has led to increased interest in the use of batteries.

Massive increases in battery storage capacity, contributing to pushing price per kilo-Watt hour down.

Batteries aims to balance solar power gained in day against peak energy usage times within households / businesses. Battery performance is firmly dependent on uses of energy.

Project Proposals 11:00-12:00

Jonathan Atkinson(Carbon Coop)

Community Hydro Scheme – summary

A community group produces energy from their local river but rather than selling the energy to the grid, who then sell this energy on to households / businesses at a premium, it is sold directly to households / offices for a higher price than they would receive from the grid but at a lower price than the household / business would pay if they were to buy their energy from the grid. However, Regulatory change is still needed to make this viable.

Match funding would be raised through a community share issue, the investors would be repaid over time with profits made from selling the energy produced by the hydro scheme.

Advantages

  • No new wires needed
  • Lower costs to Distribution Network Operator

Disadvantages

  • Outstanding legal questions but advice is being sought to clarify this;
  • Viability under ERDF, issues surrounding revenue generation and how this effects ERDF as profits would be deducted from ERDF grant sum

Social Housing Development– summary

A social housing development would create a private wire network and share one single meter and each individual property would instead have a sub meter.Energy would then be shared within the network. This enables more balancing of energy consumption.

Energy Efficiency– summary

Retrofit’s within homes to improve energy efficiency.

Issue

  • Struggles to get households on board, does it meet social output needs?

Marilyn Comrie (The Blair Project)

Automotive Smart Factory

Build a demonstrator for showcasing new sustainable, low carbon technologies with the aim of visitors experiencing and learning about new technologies and taking away ideas and inspiration they can potentially put into practice.

The factory would also be used to offer local young people apprenticeships where they can learn about cutting edge technologies. This provides the young people with an impressive skills set and excellent knowledge of a growth area market.

The factory would produce its own energy and be fully self-sufficient and would also produce an excess of energy which would be used to offer free charging of electric vehicles for visitors of the centre.

Feedback and next steps 12:00 – 12:15 – Louis Brooks (GMCVO)

Summary of discussion: opportunities for VCSE organisations (Sustainable Urban Development Plan)

  • Match funding requirement and the fact that work will be done in arrears is a significant barrier to participation on the project;
  • The minimum project value is beyond the ability of most VCSE organisations in GM, not a lack of wanting, just not big enough to do it. VCSE organisations main avenue to contribute will be non-technical. For example, Carbon Literacy training.
  • Really exciting to hear about the opportunity but seems remote and lacks relevance ata neighbourhood level.
  • Projects need resident approval and on the ground interaction which can be provided by VCSE sector;
  • VCSE need to link with technological sector to create relationships. Alongside this VCSE organisations need to be able to illustrate what results their work is achieving. For example, carbon tonnage saved.