Accelerating local places towards Net Zero with models, tools and skills that help to develop zero carbon strategies, scale-up innovations, attract investment and create jobs
Accelerating local places towards Net Zero with innovative models, tools and skills
Energy Systems Catapult has developed a Place-based Net Zero Toolkit for local authorities, energy networks, businesses, communities and innovators to accelerate zero carbon solutions.
Each local place is unique and the right decarbonisation strategy will depend on the geography, building types, energy infrastructure, energy demand, resources, urban growth plans and low carbon ambitions of the local community.
We’ve developed a toolkit that helps clean companies and communities flourish, combining cutting edge whole system models, tools, guides, case studies and information to support the growth of innovative low carbon businesses, attract infrastructure investment and create jobs.
Place-based Net Zero strategies
Our pioneering Local Area Energy Planning is data-driven, collaborative, cost effective and recognised as the leading approach to decarbonising local places.
Creating Smart Local Energy Systems
Supporting the creation of Smart Local Energy Systems to attract innovative low carbon businesses, infrastructure, investment and jobs.
Accelerating zero carbon businesses
Our Place-based Net Zero Toolkit supports zero carbon innovators to help local places decarbonise and supports local places to attract zero carbon businesses.
Decarbonising local places and complex sites
We’ve developed systematic, repeatable and scalable approaches to decarbonising sites, like housing estates and schools, with consistent technical and financial approaches.
What we offer
Energy Systems Catapult offers models, tools and labs to help local places, industry, innovators and communities navigate to Net Zero.
Local Area Energy Planning
Pioneering, whole systems approach to developing robust Net Zero strategies for local places that are data-driven, collaborative and cost effective.
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Local Energy Asset Representation
Helping planners and innovators deploy low carbon technologies with visual representations of energy assets, buildings, geography and fuel poverty.
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Net Zero Go
Turning local council Net Zero ambition into action, with everything you need - all in one place - with a unique, powerful, easy-to-use platform.
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Dynamic Energy System Simulation
Groundbreaking EnergyPath® Operations tool assesses system design choices, business models and digital solutions for future system architectures.
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ZeroCarbon.Vote
Unique online consultation tool designed to help local authorities and businesses understand the zero carbon preferences of local people.
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Home Energy Dynamics
First-of-a-kind simulation tool that analyses complex interactions between low carbon technologies and many facets of homes - including heating and hydraulic systems, building fabric and consumer profiles.
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Aspects of Integration
Considers eight different areas of systems integration to support projects to identifying risks and the readiness of their solutions, and the project team’s ability to deliver them.
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Skills and Training for Net Zero Homes
Accelerating the market for zero carbon skills and training to drive an unparalleled upgrading of UK housing stock and heating systems
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Our Place-based Major Programmes
Energy Systems Catapult delivers multi-year, multi-million pound programmes to help decarbonise local places and complex sites.
Project
Energy Revolution Integration Service
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Project
Modern Energy Partners
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How to work with us
Energy Systems Catapult provides technical, commercial and policy expertise to drive innovation across the whole energy system.
Our independent and technology-agnostic approach, has built a trusted track record in delivering thought leadership, collaborative R&D and commercial commissioning.
Providing a range of capabilities, tools and labs – from world class Net Zero modelling and cutting-edge systems engineering – through to digital and data science and real-world innovation trials that drive start-ups to success.
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Supporting energy companies and networks, industrial sites and commercial businesses to navigate to Net Zero.
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Supporting government, local authorities and innovators to create the new policies, markets, business models and technologies we need to deliver Net Zero.
Case Studies
Local Area Energy Planning
Around 75% of local authorities in the UK have declare a climate emergency and targets of achieving Net Zero before 2050, yet few have a clear plan on not clear how to get there, what needs to be done in what order, or which technologies and infrastructure to invest in.
Local Area Energy Planning (LAEP) is a data-driven, whole system approach – that considers how to decarbonise the entire energy system at least cost across electricity, gas, heat and transport, down the supply chains from energy generation to distribution and consumption in homes and businesses, and across systems – the physical, digital, market and policy systems.
Bridgend Country Borough Council were one of the first local places in the country to to collaborate on a LAEP – focused initially on the decarbonisation of heat.
Working with BCBC, Wales and West Utilities and other key local stakeholders we developed a street-by-street LAEP unique to the area – that found decarbonisation of heat could be achieved at a cost premium of just 15% above the cost of decarbonising electricity alone.
The LAEP delivered future local energy scenarios; insights and evidence to help develop of a pipeline of innovation projects to transform the energy system to zero carbon over time; and identified opportunities and risks to help support more open dialogue, future engagement and investment in building retrofit, heat, gas and electricity networks.
Bridgend returned in 2021 to collaborate of extending the LAEP to include transport, energy storage and hydrogen.
Dynamic Energy System Simulation
Energy Systems Catapult collaborated with UK Power Networks (UKPN) under Network Innovation Allowance funding to investigate the behaviour of domestic electricity consumers and the distribution network supplying them under a Cold Start scenario in 2030.
With electrification of heating and transport expected to be at far higher level in the next decade, an extended power outage under severe weather conditions would lead to a sudden demand surge to levels far higher than normal peak levels as electrical devices are reactivated.
Using our innovative EnergyPath® Operations tool, we created a Dynamic Energy Systems Simulation using a portion of real electricity network to understand the physical impacts of fault conditions on energy assets and appliances within the network under different outage scenarios. A range of metrics were produced, including power flows, voltages, loading and balancing.
The results will allow UKPN to identify:
- Network areas with high risk of adverse effects from power restoration after Cold Start.
- Mitigation measures such as operational policies, network controls, demand-side flexibility and conventional reinforcement.
- Explore novel mitigation methods based on in-home appliance flexibility.
Home Energy Dynamics
Mixergy has designed an innovative, smart hot water storage tank that allows consumers to heat only the water they need, in contrast to conventional hot water tanks which heat all or nothing. This saves on energy, cost and carbon emissions.
Energy Systems Catapult utilised our Home Energy Dynamics modelling toolkit to help Mixergy simulate how their hot water tank interacts with varied building and occupancy profiles without needing to deploy the innovation in the real world.
HED has been tested on a number of homes to date, to demonstrate a very strong correlation between predicted and measured energy performance, which supports validation work undertaken with Salford University’s Energy House.
David White, Head of Commercial Operations, Mixergy, said: “Home Energy Dynamics allowed us to test Mixergy’s product when deployed in a varied ecosystem of products and applications, which is often challenging to model. These insights are extremely valuable when articulating to prospective clients and stakeholders the full impact of deploying smart home technologies.
“We were really impressed with the accuracy of the model and also how it is able to quickly identify effectiveness of a solution without need for a full laboratory set-up.”
Local Area Asset Representation
Local Energy Asset Representation (LEAR) is a modelling tool developed by Energy Systems Catapult. It pulls together local information on energy demand, generation, storage and distribution assets, social factors like fuel poverty and characteristics like building design types and local geography, using geospatial data analysis and aspects of machine learning. It enables planners and innovators to strategically decide how they might deploy and grow low carbon businesses.
The York & North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (YNY LEP) needed a LEAR to support their vision for achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and milestone of 78% reduction by 2035. Locally, five local authorities have declared a climate emergency setting challenging decarbonisation targets up to twenty years ahead of that target. YNY LEP area covers well over 8,000 km2 and has a population of around 825,000 people.
YNY LEP requested their LEAR provide an understanding of the building stock in the local area by geographic location, including analysis of:
- Types of dwellings including building fabric
- Types of heating systems
- Annual and peak energy demands
- Potential for domestic on-roof solar PV and off-street parking for electric vehicle charging
- An assessment of energy networks that serve them including capacity and embedded generation.
The LEAR also provided information on the levels of employment and deprivation correlating to the building by building assessment in each area.
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Energy System Catapult is the UK’s leading independent authority on helping local places local places and organisations take real action on the climate emergency. Our pioneering approach is data-driven, collaborative and cost effective.
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Energy Systems Catapult helps accelerate zero carbon innovation with independent, technology-agnostic and whole systems models, tools and labs.
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