GB’s Northern Powergrid promotes community energy

Northern England network operator Northern Powergrid has launched two initiatives to support local community energy development.

These are a Net Zero Community Energy Fund, which is aimed to help tackle the barriers groups are facing when it comes to getting projects off the ground, and the ‘Put your community on the map!’ campaign, which is aimed at helping community groups connect to share ideas and best practices.

The Fund, with applications running over the next three months, is planned to help local groups secure up to £10,000 ($12,204) to build capacity and knowledge and explore new community energy projects that could bolster energy independence and reduce the impact of the increasing energy prices, as well as help achieve net zero emissions targets.

Northern Powergrid is offering support for projects at the early stages, from enabling access to the right expertise or training to exploring feasible project ideas and encouraging new and existing community organisations to develop their projects.

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In parallel, Northern Powergrid will also continue to deliver free online training sessions for community energy groups in its region over the summer.

The ‘Put your community on the map!’ campaign is aimed to encourage community energy and climate groups to add details about their activities and interests to a new interactive map to provide them visibility and enable them to find other like-minded local organisations.

“Our vision is one for a thriving, connected and strong community energy sector in our region, where decarbonisation, resilience, energy democracy, energy security and innovation go hand-in-hand,” says Anda Baumerte, Northern Powergrid’s sustainability manager.

“We want to work with the communities we serve to tackle the climate emergency together. We are seeing a growing network of community energy organisations across the region and we hope that our new fund will provide the vital early support to equip them with tools to make a difference and deliver more projects locally.”

The two initiatives are being supported by Community Energy England, a national body for community energy organisations.

According to the body, which has identified more than 420 community organisations in UK, in 2020 across the UK these organisations delivered £3.13 million ($3.8 million) of community benefits and generated enough electricity to power the equivalent of 100,000 homes.

Northern Powergrid initiated a Community Energy Engagement Strategy in 2020 and has more than 80 organisations in its operating area.