If you switch from a gas boiler to a heat pump, or from a petrol car to electric, how much carbon will you save, and what will it cost? It's not easy to tell, but the Future Energy Tool is here to help.
The tool has been designed to help whole communities to establish a community scale picture of domestic energy usage, carbon emissions and energy costs, and to understand what types of low carbon interventions and scale of action are required to achieve a local net zero energy system by 2050. The tool will help you in setting ambitions, facilitating community scale planning and proposing collective and individual household action for a net zero future.
But it is just as much about engaging a community in a vision to reach net zero as it is about planning and taking the necessary actions.
We recommend that you download and read the step-by-step guide on how to use the tool, here.
It shows you how to set up your community in the tool, navigating through the different stages. It provides guidance on what information is required about your community and where to find it so that you can tailor the tool to the specifics of your community. Examples are included to demonstrate how WREN has applied this process to set up the Wadebridge and Padstow Community Network Area.
Once you have created a community in the tool, you can explore what impact different decisions about adopting net zero technologies will have on the community's pathway to net zero and in particular the impact that is made by the timing of those decisions. The tool estimates the current and future annual energy requirements of the whole community, along with the associated cost and carbon emissions.
When you have defined and agreed a pathway in your community, you can share the tailored model with people within the community, so they can plan their own individual journey to net zero and take their own individual actions.
The transition to net zero is not just about a tool. We have also produced a wider Guide for Communities which you can download for free here.
The tool, user guide and Guide for Communities is an output of Net Zero Community (NZCom) work package of ‘Project Vulnerability and Energy Networks, Identification and Consumption Evaluation (VENICE)’, National Grid Electricity Distribution’s first innovation project focussed wholly on customers, and in particular those with vulnerabilities. For more information about Project VENICE visit the National Grid website.
You can find more reports produced by NZCom on the Project Workstreams page.
Introduction Participants Project Workstreams Events Future Energy Tool
Reports Delivered
NZCom has eight different project streams or 'work packages', each performed primarily by one of the partners. There are, of course, links and overlaps between the work packages, which the project will bring together as a whole.
Click on the report title to view the report.
WP 2
Review of published energy scenarios and associated methodologies
High level net zero scenarios for the Wadebridge and Padstow community network area
Methodology for communities developing local net zero scenarios
Future energy scenarios workshop report
WP 3
Community scale NZC 2050 carbon accounting method
WP 4
Review of Technical and System Options
Wadebridge and Padstow Community Network Area Net Zero 2050 Report
Characterisation of confining factors to meeting net zero
WP 5
Establishing socioeconomic outcomes of community business models
Community business cases - Options
Low Carbon Energy Advisor Outline Business Case
Questions for Communities
A Guide for Communities
WP 7
Reducing consumer energy costs with an innovative heat pump tariff and peak avoidance strategies
WP 8
Vulnerability in the Energy Sector – Domestic consumers
Working definition of vulnerability of non-domestic consumers
Project Manager and WREN Technical Director, Chris Coonick, presented an update to the annual general meeting at the end of September 2021.
Click here to view.
Introduction Participants Project Workstreams Events Future Energy Tool
Net Zero Community (NZCom) is funded by National Grid Electricity Distribution (formerly Western Power Distribution), the electricity network distribution operator in the Southwest, through its Network Innovation Allowance. National Grid - Vulnerability and Energy Networks, Identification and Consumption Evaluation (VENICE)
It forms part of a wider project called VENICE (Vulnerability and Energy Networks, Identification and Consumption Evaluation) which has three strands:
- NZCom - led by WREN
- SMILE (Smart Meter Identification) - led by Frontier Economics
- Vulnerable Customers and COVID - led by Frazer Nash
WREN has engaged with other organisations to deliver NZCom.
WREN itself will provide effective project planning & management throughout the project lifecycle to achieve & provide evidence of achievement of objectives. This will be led by Technical Director Chris Coonick.
WREN is also responsible for obtaining effective and timely community input into project research and disseminating project outputs, led by Community Engagement Director Simon Miller. This will be done through a Project Advisory Group, Community Focus Groups and other engagement mechanisms.
The other partners in NZCom are:
Dr Iain Soutar is a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus in Cornwall. He is leading the development of local scenario narratives for NZCom to articulate plausible energy futures, as a basis for exploring options for new technologies, business models and institutional arrangements.
http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Iain_Soutar
Dr Xiaoyu Yan is a Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environment at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus in Cornwall. He is leading the development of a carbon accounting methodology for NZCom to qualitatively compare impacts and community scale energy efficiency and low carbon technology interventions.
http://emps.exeter.ac.uk/renewable-energy/staff/xy258
Planet A Solutions CIC is a social enterprise based in Par, Cornwall, working exclusively to alleviate the climate emergency in the interests of the Global Community, which invests 50% of its profits back into schemes that help protect against climate change. Planet A will identify complementary technologies, systems, and approaches to deliver optimal holistic outcomes to reach net zero carbon in the Wadebridge and Padstow network area by 2050 that positively support vulnerable customers. https://planetaenergy.org
Community Energy Plus is an award-winning social enterprise that provides complete energy answers to help householders in Cornwall enjoy warmer, energy efficient homes as part of a more sustainable future. It is based in Truro, Cornwall. CEP will develop community-led business models that have the potential to deliver socioeconomic benefits. It will understand and adapt the Net Zero Communities proposal to accommodate the needs of vulnerable energy customers to ensure that none are left behind in the energy transition. https://www.cep.org.uk
Introduction Participants Project Workstreams Events Future Energy Tool
The Government, Cornwall Council and our local councils have declared 'climate emergencies', with 'Net Zero' carbon target dates variously of 2030 and 2050, but what does that really mean?
What are ‘net zero’ carbon targets and how do we all play our part?
Broadly, net zero means being as energy efficient at possible at home, work, school and when we’re out and out about, whilst maximising our use of renewable energy sources and off-setting or balancing any unavoidable emissions by measures that actually remove CO2 from the atmosphere. But when you try to get into the detail, you run into all sorts of questions and concerns such as the potential costs of switching to low carbon heating. At the moment we don’t have all the answers and are working through the challenges together.
WREN's amazing new project, Net Zero Community, or NZCom for short, aims to determine what is necessary for a community like ours to achieve net zero carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and show how everyone in the community can make the transition to a net zero carbon future, not just those who can afford to. If we can find something that will work for us, it may well then work as a model for others – certainly across towns and rural communities in the UK, if not necessarily in the big cities.
No one really knows what net zero looks like at a community level, so WREN is pioneering once again – and we cannot do it without your help.
We have held several workshops with a focus group to hear views and concerns, and there have been several meetings with an advisory group of experts and stakeholders. The future changes will affect us all and we want to make sure that nobody is left behind.
Available Now for UK Communities: The Future Energy Tool
See Also: A Guide for Communities
Project Partners
Net Zero Community (NZCom) is funded by National Grid Electricity Distribution (formerly Western Power Distribution), the electricity network distribution operator in the Southwest, through its Network Innovation Allowance. National Grid - Vulnerability and Energy Networks, Identification and Consumption Evaluation (VENICE)
It forms part of a wider project called VENICE (Vulnerability and Energy Networks, Identification and Consumption Evaluation) which has three strands:
- NZCom - led by WREN
- SMILE (Smart Meter Identification) - led by Frontier Economics
- Vulnerable Customers and COVID - led by Frazer Nash
WREN has engaged with other organisations to deliver NZCom.
WREN itself will provide effective project planning & management throughout the project lifecycle to achieve & provide evidence of achievement of objectives. This will be led by Technical Director Chris Coonick.
WREN is also responsible for obtaining effective and timely community input into project research and disseminating project outputs, led by Community Engagement Director Simon Miller. This will be done through a Project Advisory Group, Community Focus Groups and other engagement mechanisms.
The other partners in NZCom are:
Dr Iain Soutar is a Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus in Cornwall. He is leading the development of local scenario narratives for NZCom to articulate plausible energy futures, as a basis for exploring options for new technologies, business models and institutional arrangements.
http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Iain_Soutar
Dr Xiaoyu Yan is a Senior Lecturer in Energy and Environment at the University of Exeter Penryn Campus in Cornwall. He is leading the development of a carbon accounting methodology for NZCom to qualitatively compare impacts and community scale energy efficiency and low carbon technology interventions.
http://emps.exeter.ac.uk/renewable-energy/staff/xy258
Planet A Solutions CIC is a social enterprise based in Par, Cornwall, working exclusively to alleviate the climate emergency in the interests of the Global Community, which invests 50% of its profits back into schemes that help protect against climate change. Planet A will identify complementary technologies, systems, and approaches to deliver optimal holistic outcomes to reach net zero carbon in the Wadebridge and Padstow network area by 2050 that positively support vulnerable customers. https://planetaenergy.org
Community Energy Plus is an award-winning social enterprise that provides complete energy answers to help householders in Cornwall enjoy warmer, energy efficient homes as part of a more sustainable future. It is based in Truro, Cornwall. CEP will develop community-led business models that have the potential to deliver socioeconomic benefits. It will understand and adapt the Net Zero Communities proposal to accommodate the needs of vulnerable energy customers to ensure that none are left behind in the energy transition. https://www.cep.org.uk
Introduction Participants Project Workstreams Events Future Energy Tool
WREN's amazing new project, Net Zero Community, or NZCom for short, aims to determine what is necessary for a community like ours to achieve net zero carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and show how everyone in the community can make the transition to a net zero carbon future, not just those who can afford to.
More details can be found on these linked pages.