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Community Energy

Community energy refers to the delivery of community led renewable energy, energy demand reduction and energy supply projects, whether wholly owned and/or controlled by communities or through partnership with commercial or public sector partners.

Community energy groups are important stakeholders to us at Western Power Distribution. We are committed to working proactively with ours.

Conversations are free and we encourage you to talk to us early

encourages Alison Sleightholm, Resources and External Affairs Director, Western Power Distribution.

We pride ourselves on early engagement so we encourage you to make contact early on in your project.

Read our communities strategy

What is Community Energy?

Community energy covers aspects of collective action to reduce, purchase, manage and generate energy.

Community energy groups can also play a role in projects and trials led by others, such as local authorities, energy companies and network operators. Their excellent links to the local people and businesses mean they are trusted intermediaries. Community energy projects have an emphasis on:

Local engagement

Local leadership

Democratic control

Local community benefit

Explore

Currently the network in some areas is constrained because it wasn’t designed for two way flows of electricity. Flexible smart solutions to balance the supply of electricity and increasing demand at a local level can overcome these challenges and provide exciting opportunities for communities to get involved. With this in mind, Western Power Distribution have been running a number of innovation trials. Summaries of these trials can be found in our case studies section.

Guides & information

Enabling community energy groups to explore the ways of generating, supplying and using energy more effectively.

Communities strategy

As a distribution network operator, we are committed to accelerating net zero in communities across our four licence areas. 

Articles & case studies

Ideas, strategies and success stories of our community energy groups, from electric vehicle use to open LV networks.

Useful Information

Useful links for WPD information and other good sources online. 

Animations library

Take a look at our series of short films to help explain the different innovative new business models.

Community energy podcasts

We’ve worked together with Regen South West to produce a series of community energy podcasts.

FAQs

You'll find answers here to some of our most asked questions about community energy.

Community energy appointments

We are working pro-actively with community energy groups and recognise that the volunteer led approach and complex nature of their project requires our full involvement.

Events

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More information on our upcoming and past events

Latest News

Our ground-breaking OpenLV project makes waves ahead of Community Energy Fortnight

Find out more

WPD Unveils Net Zero Communities Strategy

Find out more