Prof Stephen McArthur, Deputy Associate Principal, Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde
29th September 2021
The Challenge Advisory Group (CAG) for the Prospering From the Energy Revolution (PFER) met recently, and EnergyREV was invited along. They wanted to know about the insights that were arising from our research and activities, and our thoughts on the role and value of such an academic consortium within a programme such as PFER.
Thanks to great research within EnergyREV, and the information provided by all the Work Packages, we were able to provide an impressive and broad array of insights across all the topics we cover, from business models to technical architectures, from policy mechanisms to skills, and from markets to citizen engagement. The CAG commented on the quality and volume of our outcomes and outputs. We were also able to emphasise the importance of bringing in knowledge and experience from before the start of PFER, and our drive to create a legacy beyond it. We have also been pivotal in defining what is a Smart Local Energy System (SLES), and, increasingly, what is its role in the wider whole energy system.
The questions and discussions took a very interesting turn, as they were focused on the wider PFER vision and future. There is a real desire within the CAG to integrate and combine the findings and learnings across PFER to offer real evidence of the value and place for Smart Local Energy Systems. They wish to create evidence that can be presented to the highest level of decision makers within Government to inform the next stages of our Net Zero journey (and they wish to determine the routes to achieve this). As we now move into the final 18 months of our programme, this aligns very well with our plans. We were already increasing our focus on integrating our activities, extracting the key insights, and finding ways of combining our work package activities to drive the most novel and impactful outcomes. We’ll now be helping all of the work packages to align their plans and deliverables to secure EnergyREV’s impact within the UK, and wider, Net Zero ambitions. The recently launched EnergyREV report “Starting to join the dots: An interim review of EnergyREV insights” summarises the key findings and insights from the early stages of the programme.