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

Community Energy Fortnight starts next week and we’ve been working with community associations to help them understand more about their energy use.

It’s all been part of our OpenLV Project where we’ve put new monitoring equipment called LV-CAP™ in 80 substations across our four licence areas. This energy data is being used by community groups, businesses, universities and the project team for a wide variety of purposes, all benefiting community projects, the environment and the electricity system.

Community energy groups have been able to access this energy data – both real-time and historical – and they’ve developed a range of ways of using it.

Examples include:

• A Bristol-based group, Owen Square Community Energy, has been using the data to run financial modelling and build a business case for the decarbonisation of its heat projects.
• Tamar Energy Community in Devon is using the data to raise awareness about energy efficiency and carbon emissions amongst children, and about local generation and time-of-use tariffs among the wider community.
• Marshfeild Energy Group, in Gloucester, are using the data to create a village-wide energy strategy. This will help the group understand the potential in the village to increase renewable generation, facilitate the uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) and understand local network constraints.

OpenLV is being carried out in partnership with EA Technology, Nortech, Lucy Electric, Centre for Sustainable Energy and Regen.

Find out more about the project here, and see more examples of how community energy groups are utilising this new data here.