One of seven successful Net Zero Living Demonstrator Projects, Mission Net Zero is a regional partnership in the West of England, led by Bristol City Council. The partnership aims to demonstrate how people can achieve their climate goals, obtain investment in new decarbonisation methods, and grow related businesses to benefit the whole community. The project aims to overcome key non-technical barriers to decarbonisation through:

• Consumer engagement (engaging communities to create three Community Climate Investment Plans)
• Working with businesses and training providers to grow capacity, capability and address skills
• Working with partners to create a West of England Regional Climate Investment Plan

Doing this would require a robust ‘whole energy system’ plan that would identify what, where, when and how many interventions, would be needed to deliver the Net Zero ambitions of the region.

It was recognised that developing such a plan would need to consider the desires, ambitions, and existing work of the participating local authorities, the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority, and other regional stakeholders including the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE), Wales and Western Utilities (WWU), National Grid Energy Distribution (NGED), and the Bristol City Leap partnership.

The Catapult engaged with Bristol City Council and partners with the aim of advising on the most appropriate direction to take for their energy plan based on evidence obtained from user needs analysis.

The innovation

Overcoming the non-technical barriers to regional decarbonisation through user needs identification, thereby establishing stakeholder buy in for the energy planning approach, as well as considering the use of a digital platform for generating the latest data insights to inform decision making, and development of a pipeline of investable projects.

The challenge

To achieve the Mission Net Zero ambitions, a robust whole energy system plan is required that integrates the needs of all stakeholders within the West of England region in a considered way, ensuring that the development, funding, and deployment of priority projects is successful.

The solution

Energy Systems Catapult interviewed 10 key stakeholders (including all participating local authorities, the West of England Combined Authority, community energy groups, network operators, and investors) to obtain the most important user needs. An example of the user needs identified was the need to ensure that the energy plan developed includes the co-benefits of achieving Net Zero – such as reduced and more predictable energy bills, job creation, growth in the local economy, a better-quality local environment, and improved community health and well-being.

Additionally, a key user need identified for the use of the digital platform is that it should have the capacity to capture and share feedback and lessons learned from Net Zero projects so that others can learn in an accessible way.

These user needs were distilled into seven recommendations that the Mission Net Zero Partnership would need to consider when establishing their approach to energy planning, the use of a digital platform, and to inform the development of a pipeline of investable projects. Some of these recommendations included completing a baselining exercise to understand the technological priorities of the region, to consider a combined authority ownership model for the digital platform and to explore a modular delivery approach for the energy plan.

Impact

The seven recommendations made to the Mission Net Zero Partnership were:

1. Define and prioritise requirements for the energy plan.
2. Clearly define and communicate the scope of the energy plan and the climate investment plans to avoid misinterpretation across the stakeholders.
3. Complete a data prioritisation exercise to understand what key datasets need to be taken forward for the digital platform.
4. Consider a modular delivery approach for the energy plan to ensure that stakeholders who have different levels of resourcing and capacity to deliver Net Zero projects are appropriately supported.
5. Explore a combined authority ownership model for the digital platform to ensure that access to the platform can be regulated consistently.
6. Consider completing a baseline exercise to understand the current landscape in more detail and understand what other activities the region could do to attract more funding and achieve decarbonisation.
7. Consider producing a Whole Energy Systems Plan to definitively understand the scale of the investment requirement for Net Zero.

All recommendations were accepted and have informed decision making for the type of energy plan and digital platform the West of England region will implement as part of Mission Net Zero. Some of these recommendations were also communicated at a dissemination workshop led by Bristol City Council to update other UK local authorities outside the West of England region on their Mission Net Zero activities.

Next steps

Bristol City Council and Mission Net Zero partners have procured energy planning support and a digital energy planning platform, with the Catapult’s recommended user needs embedded as part of the requirements for this commission.

Client testimonial

“Energy Systems Catapult brought an invaluable wealth of knowledge and experience to the project and helped us work at pace to conduct a structured needs analysis.  This has provided the foundation for successful commissioning of a digital platform, regional climate investment plan, and investment pipeline design.”