Smart Energy Savings (SENS) Competition: evaluation
Independent evaluation of the impacts of innovative feedback products and services that used smart meter data on household energy consumption.
Documents
Details
This independent evaluation of the Smart Energy Savings Competition (SENS) was led by Ipsos in partnership with the Energy Saving Trust, the University of Edinburgh and Manchester Metropolitan University.
SENS provided up to £6.25 million to support the development, trialling and evaluation of innovative feedback products and services that used smart meter data to help households reduce their energy consumption.
SENS was launched in 2019, with trials concluding at the end of March 2022 (extended by one year due to COVID-19 impacts).
The competition objectives were to :
- identify innovative products and services using smart meter data that could deliver energy savings in homes, in excess of those currently identified in the smart meter impact assessment, for either the Great Britain population or specific groups within it
- ensure that solutions were attractive and valued by consumers and were easily available (using existing technologies and delivery channels or cost-effective new hardware)
- support the development of a domestic market for energy management products and services, securing investment from technology providers, energy suppliers, and third parties
Phase 1 (June 2019 to December 2019)
Following a competed application process, 8 projects were selected and provided (matched) grant funding for Phase 1 to develop their products and / or services ahead of potential household trials in Phase 2.
Phase 2 (January 2020 to end March 2022)
Following a stage-gate review process, 5 projects that had reached a suitable development stage were provided with matched grant funding and taken through to Phase 2, to trial and evaluate their innovative products and / or services through large scale household trials.
The competition leads for the 5 Phase 2 projects were:
- Green Energy Options (GEO) Limited
- GenGame Limited
- Energy Local Community Interest Company (CIC)
- Lightbulb ES Limited
- Eliq Limited
We appointed Ipsos to:
- work with projects to develop a trial of their product
- lead a robust evaluation, overall, and for each of the products trialled to identify the impact on household energy consumption
- implement a package of wider research (with projects and domestic customers participating in the trial)
Separately, the department awarded a grant to the Smart Energy Research Laboratory (SERL) based at University College London, for the secure collection and provision of energy consumption data from trial households (with customer consent) to Ipsos for their analyses.