Comment by Rowanne Fleck, Lead User Researcher at Energy Systems Catapult.

The growing use of renewable energy coupled with the electrification of heat, transport, and industry is changing the face of our energy system; by 2050 demand for electricity will almost double. We are facing an energy future that experiences greater peaks and troughs that reflect the burgeoning growth of renewable energy generation.

Every change in our energy system will be met with new ways of paying for energy use, such as time of use tariffs that better reflect the variable nature of generation. The aim of these changes will be to match supply with demand, and to reduce peak demand.

However, left unchecked, there could be unintended consequences of these changes. The combination of these factors could lead to periods when electricity supply may be reduced or become unaffordable for some disabled consumers, potentially risking their welfare, dignity, and security.

These changes will affect us all. We will all need to make changes to the ways that we use energy in our homes. Until now, little has been known about the impact of these changes on disabled consumers, many of whom have a greater reliance on, and use of energy to meet their specific needs. It is important that we consider how energy products and services are designed to meet the needs of everyone.

As part of our Fair Futures programme, we recently partnered with the Research Institute for Disabled Consumers (RiDC) to survey over 450 disabled customers and run a series of co-design workshops, to better understand the ways in which the changing energy system might impact them. This has helped us to identify some of the key challenges that might arise for disabled consumers with the increasing electrification of heat and transport, as well as some of the opportunities for the energy sector to overcome these.

The impact of a changing energy system on disabled people

We all need energy in our homes to keep warm, heat our hot water, to cook, and to communicate. However, these requirements can be more crucial for disabled people, many of whom also need energy to power their life-critical medical equipment and for mobility.

Our report identified five broad functions that disabled consumers are reliant on energy for:

The changing nature of the energy system risks having significant ramifications on the health and dignity of disabled people. For example, just over half of survey respondents stated that they need energy to power medical equipment. Of those, 59% could not manage without it, even for a short window of 2-5 hours. Similarly, many disabled people who are reliant on energy for mobility (for example for stairlifts or to charge electric wheelchairs or scooters etc.) wouldn’t manage without it for even 2-5 hours.

Often such equipment cannot only be used or charged at times when energy is cheapest, owing to the inconvenience or risk it could cause. Many disabled consumers would have no choice but to use energy when they needed to, whatever the cost.

Co-designing solutions for the future

Through our co-design workshops, disabled consumers were able to come up with solutions that appealed to them. Participants proposed solutions such as planning aids, protected access to energy, price protection, and home energy efficient improvements.

Take protected access to energy for example, our participants suggested several solutions that could ensure they would always have enough energy, at least for what they considered essential. One solution proposed was to prioritise access to energy for anyone with a medical need for electrical devices.

Many groups suggested solutions centred around the idea of back-up battery power – either to seamlessly provide for all their energy needs or to cover essential use. Such a back-up battery solution would run the whole house during times of reduced access to energy. Batteries would be installed – even provided free of charge – in the house and would always have enough energy stored to power essential medical and wellbeing equipment.

These ideas are just that, ideas. But they come from disabled consumers in response to how they might be impacted by changes to the energy system. Distribution Network Operators (DNOs), energy service providers, and energy innovators should take these themes into consideration when designing and implementing any new features of the future energy system.

Where do we go from here?

The findings of the report are clear: involving disabled consumers in the design of future solutions will benefit everyone. Ensuring the future energy system meets everyone’s needs requires involving a wide variety of users in the design process, from initial ideation through design to testing.

When we asked them, disabled consumers told us products and services that work well for them must be affordable, simple, and easy to use, be designed with the end-user in mind, and offer a good customer experience.

This mirrors the message of our Trialling with Disabled Consumers: Enabling energy innovation to be inclusive report which argued that to ensure inclusivity going forward, new energy products and services need to be trialled with disabled consumers.

Where the energy market goes from here is unclear, what is crystal clear however, is the need to work with disabled customers to understand the problems and issues they might face and to avoid creating a future energy system that doesn’t work for them.

Taking an inclusive innovation approach will ensure that disabled consumers needs are met, but could result in better, more robust solutions for everyone.