Energy Systems Catapult’s latest report, ‘Bills and carbon impact of Smart Local Energy System’, sets out findings of the Catapult’s assessment of quantitative greenhouse gas and cost savings to participants across the portfolio of Prospering from the Energy Revolution (PfER) projects.

This is one of three reports by Energy Systems Catapult evaluating 10 detailed designs and three demonstrator smart local energy system (SLES) projects funded by Innovate UK’s PfER challenge.

The 13 projects evaluated are a subset of the full PfER portfolio. This report describes the quantitative evaluation of each project’s potential impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and participant bills in 2032, while the other reports in this series evaluate:

• Public awareness and appeal of SLES
• Why SLES?

Key findings:

• Savings on both GHG emissions and consumer bills are feasible in a SLES.
• Implementing full ambition of smart operation remains challenging.
• SLES facilitation of low carbon technology substitution is a key benefit with GHG and energy usage savings typically attributable to technology substitution.
• Defining counterfactual scenarios and cost assumptions is crucial.
• Embedding data requirements and timings in funding agreements with project consortia would greatly aid the process of evaluation.