Cities across the UK should take a holistic approach when tackling the net-zero challenge, ensuring that fuel poor households are engaged in the transition, Eon Energy’s head of city energy transformation has stressed.
During a recent sector roundtable, industry observers discussed how cities can map out a green recovery following the pandemic.
Eon’s Philip Wallace said for the the energy transition to be really effective, it has to have “everybody at its heart”, adding that “inclusivity is huge”.
Speaking to Utility Week following the roundtable, Wallace said: “We fundamentally believe that the way to effect real change at pace and scale is to have a holistic strategy and through long-term partnership, to transform the energy infrastructure across the city to deal with a number of issues.”
He listed several issues that can be resolved via “quick wins” including funding, a lack of housing and energy inefficient homes. Specifically he warned that engaging fuel poor households by sorting out inefficient homes as part of a holistic overall approach was key.
He added: “The quick wins for the city are around fuel poverty alleviation and air quality improvement, that can be done now. It takes time to implement district heating, to deploy heat exchanges in sewers to extract heat energy from wastewater.
“We can make a radical improvement in fuel poverty alleviation, health and in air quality now. For example, Eon has deployed around a billion pounds of ECO funding to local authorities to deploy domestic energy efficiency measures across cities and we have done this across the country. That is something that we have been doing and are doing now. Something we are going to continue to do and accelerate with the cities with which we partner.”
Recently industry observers have raised concerns about a potential “two-tier” energy market developing in which tech-savvy prosumers benefit from a smarter system while poorer customers miss out.
When asked about ways in which to better engage poorer customers, Wallace said: “The best way to engage people is to make that improvement for them. If we are putting loft insulation, cavity wall insulation or a new boiler into a home, that instantly engages them on the benefits of what we are trying to achieve, that is absolutely key.”